Before I Go
by jennycaakes
Summary: Madge wasn't going to leave without showing Gale how she truly felt. Now years have passed and he can't get her out of his head. What's he going to do about it? AU, Post Mockingjay. Previously titled "The Last Goodbye"
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: All characters belong to Suzanne Collins.**

* * *

Gale had been in the square with Thom and some other coworkers from the mine. They were going to go out and get something to drink, relish maybe the last few days they had together, last few days they had alive. It was nice going out with the guys, although his eyes frequented the screen that stood tall, broadcasting Katniss and Mellark and their dying days.

To be honest, he had lost hope. He knew there was a plan, one in the arena that would help them get out, but it just seemed so hopeless. Even if Katniss did end up getting home one way or another she'd be different, so very different.

He had been thinking about this when Thom nudged his shoulder. "District Princess, 2 o'clock." Gale raised his eyebrows and looked at him, then turned slightly to see who he was referring to. Of course, it was the only person he _could've_ been referring to. Golden blonde hair trailing down her back, bright piercing eyes. Madge Undersee, the mayor's daughter.

"What do you think _she_ wants?" another one of his friends, Abram, pried. "She hasn't been out of her house in days." Maybe she's just on a walk, Gale thought. She hadn't been out lately, so maybe she wanted fresh air. However, she was on a course straight for them, determination shining in her eyes.

"Hawthorne!" she shouted, her hands balled in fists squeezes so tightly they were whiter than the pale of her soft skin.

"Oh, God," Thom groaned, shoving Gale in her direction. "Deal with it and be done, alright? We'll be at the bar."

"But," Gale went to protest but the stern look in his best friend's eyes made him falter. The group paced away from them and left him standing in the square by himself. "What do you _want_, Undersee?" he muttered, striding toward her. "I'm kind of…"

But he was cut off by the sudden force of her lips on his. Shock, that was the first thing he felt. Confusion was second. But as Madge reached her hands up and around his neck pulling him closer, that's when he kissed back. She tasted like sugar, anything sweet. He had always expected it to be strawberries, but then again they weren't in season. So just sugar.

Only when a dog whistle echoed from his friends that hadn't actually left, did she pull away. He turned to glare at them but Madge just laughed. Her cheeks were flushed as she dropped her hands from around him. "Sorry," she said weakly. "I just had to do that once."

The thing is, once wasn't enough for Gale. One taste from her and he was gone, lost in his wildest imagination, his sweetest dreams. He couldn't stop himself from leaning down again, his hand wrapping around her waist and tugging her toward him again.

She didn't object as his lips pressed hungrily against hers, one of his hands tangling into her silky smooth hair. She didn't object as Gale tugged her wrist slowly, pulling away from the square and the prying eyes of his friends. She didn't object when they leaned against a building and he used his hand to hold him upright over her.

Gale couldn't figure it out, what made him crave each one of her kisses. Maybe it was the way her fingers teased the hair on the back of his neck. Maybe it was she soft touch of her skin, or the way she didn't want him to stop. Perhaps it was the fact that this was the first time he felt anything other than numb since Katniss had left.

Katniss, how could he compare her to Madge? They aren't similar at all. Madge kisses back; Madge gets his stomach doing unfamiliar twists. Madge makes his skin radiate a heat he didn't know was possible. Her fingers rake across his chest through his shirt and she feels him shift, a sigh catching in his throat.

"Madge," he breathed against her skin sending goosebumps fleshing across every inch of her. "What made you…" he trails off to pepper kisses down her neck. "I never thought…"

"God," she shivered against him and he grins. "I just had to," she mumbles, her needy fingers yanking the hem of his shirt as close as possible. "Before I left, before my father made us go…" but her words trailed off as Gale nuzzled into her neck. His teeth lightly scraped against her and she shuddered, her words slowly getting lost in the heat of the night.

"So beautiful," he murmured before kissing her collarbone lightly. His voice sent vibrations through her skin and she arched her back as he continued.

"Since when?" she asked through a shaking voice. Her attraction to Gale Hawthorne hadn't necessarily been a secret, his rugged good looks and deep olive skin. She could just get lost in his magnificent grey eyes alone. But he never made it known that he was interested in her in any way at all.

"Always," he laughed. The sound made her blush. "Always thought so, never said so…" Madge grabbed his chin and tipped it upward, away from her neck so she could kiss him again. She caught a quick glimpse of his face. Flushed, excited, needy…

Gale's rough callused hands skirted up under her shirt and teased her waist. He had always wondered how her skin would feel against his. He never thought it would make him tingle, make his heartbeat race faster than it had before.

"Gale," she moaned slightly. His name in her mouth was like magic. He leaned down and rested his forehead against hers, their noses bumping slightly.

"Say it again," he begged.

"Gale," she forced out, her cheeks flaring up as he grinned at her. He wanted more of her, wanted to touch parts of her she didn't know she had, taste more of her than she knew possible. But it was too much for tonight, too rushed.

"Can I see you again?" he asked against her lips. She nodded ferociously, her hands raking through his hair and keeping him close to her. "Tomorrow?"

"Yes," she replied instantly as his lips repeatedly pecked against hers. But then she shook her head quickly, forcing him away. "No, no…" Madge rested her head against the brick building behind them.

Gale's eyebrows furrowed in anger, in hurt. What _was_ this? This burst of passion neither had expected to experience tonight? "Why not?" It was because he was from the Seam. Because she was the mayor's daughter, always unattainable. Because he wasn't polished like her, because he worked in the mines. His head ached as he stepped away from her.

"No, it's not like that," she said quickly. "Gale, I'm going away."

"Well for how long?" he asked. "Where? What about when you come back?" A flicker of regret flashed in her eyes as she looked away from him. "Madge…"

"I had to kiss you before I left," she mumbled quietly. "Had to let you know how I felt…" she shook her head as he stepped closer again, his hands cupping her face and making her look toward him. "Things are changing."

"Well I know that," he replied softly before kissing her again gently. "But I don't get…"

"You saw what they're doing in the arena, Gale," she sighed, searching his eyes and trying to get him to understand. "And it's going to happen. And when it does all hell will break loose." Again he nipped at her lips and her body tingled.

"Why not watch it go up in flames together?" he joked slightly, but the choice of words makes her upset. "Hey," his voice was soft. "I'm joking."

"We're leaving tonight," her voice cracked. "At midnight."

"Where are you going?" he asked confused, but she just shook her head. "What about your house? The District? Who'll run it?"

"My father hasn't been running it ever since Katniss and Peeta returned from the first Games," she said gently. Gale listened carefully but couldn't decide what to do. He just wanted her body against his, but he wanted her safe too… "Something bad is going to happen, Gale, and when it does you need to get out of here."

"What do you mean?" he asked, nuzzling into her neck. "Madge, where are you going?"

"I don't know," she replied through a shaking voice. "Away. Away from this war."

"There's no war," he soothed her.

"Not yet," she shot back. "But it's coming. You'll need to get out, Gale. I need you to get out."

"When?" he went back to kissing her neck. He's listened but if she's leaving he's not going to waste any more time. Her fingers clawed at his chest as he sucked on her collarbone.

"Soon," she forced out. "You'll know when. Get the Everdeen's and your family and get out. Go to the meadow, you can't stay in the district…"

"Alright, Madge," the hum of his voice against her made her sigh.

"Gale, I'm being serious," she whispered. "You have to believe me."

"I do!" he pulled away and met her eyes. "I'll get out, I swear. What about you?"

"I'll be long gone," she told him. He licked his lips and she stood on her tiptoes to kiss him. "Don't worry about me."

"But where are you going?" he asked again. "How?"

"I don't know the details," she shook her head, her hands again teasing his neck. "But don't worry about me. Just worry about yourself, okay?"

"What about us?" he asked softly, his lips finding hers again. He wasn't going to lose her now, now that he finally got her, now that he'd experienced the explosion of his senses. "Will I see you again?"

"I hope so, God I hope so." With one last kiss she melted into him, absorbing as much as she could. "Don't go to the house. The people inside won't be us, they're covers just in case."

"Why?" he wanted to kiss her again. And again. But now he listened as he gazed into her crystal blue eyes that reflected a fear greater than he had imagined.

"In case something we're to happen. Anyone in that house won't be us. Everyone will think it will be but it won't be."

"How do I know? How do I know you're not lying?"

"You don't," she said, her fingers, trailing over the stubble on his chin. "You just have to trust me."

And trust her he did when District 12 exploded three nights later. His family and the Everdeen's were already in the meadow by the first bomb, but he had to get everyone else out that he could. Not the entire district, he knew he couldn't get them all out. But he tried. Around 900 in total. He hadn't even bothered checking the Undersee's house.

When Thom called Gale after the war had ended saying they found all the bodies in their house, Gale's heart sunk. He momentarily forgot what she had said. _You just have to trust me_. He did trust her. He thought about her lips on his, how she said she'd be back, how she hoped to see him again.

He'd wake up in a cold sweat night after night with haunting nightmares of her body in flames, how he hadn't tried to save the girl that gave him tingles like no one before. His brain would spin fabricated images of her calling his name, of Madge trying to escape but something backfiring.

Every day he would search for a glint of golden hair. Every kiss he would compare to the one that tasted of sugar. His fingers would itch with a need for a girl he wasn't even sure was still alive. But he would keep searching. He wouldn't stop. Gale wasn't going to give up on the hope the District Princess gave him, the light that glowed in his darkness.

* * *

_A/N: Possible longer fic? Thoughts? Hope you liked it x_


	2. Chapter 2

**Continued due to popular demand!**

* * *

Gale sits at his desk and glances emptily through his files. He can't focus; he barely got any sleep last night. After one nightmare he stared at the ceiling until the sun peaked through his window. His head commander is said to be coming any minute now with some news for him, but he doesn't care. Just another mission. Another empty mission only to come home to another empty house. Maybe he'd visit his family after this one.

"Hawthorne," the voice of said commander booms into the room. Commander Veto is an aging man who helped lead uprisings in District 2 back when the war began. He's shorter than Gale and not as strong, but still strikes fear into him due to the intensity of his eyes and the power of his voice. Instantly, Gale stands, his hand shooting up to salute while the sleep vanishes from him. "At ease, soldier." Gale's hand drops limply to his side and he slides back into his seat. "I've got a mission for you."

"Where to this time, sir?" he at least _tries_ to seem interested. "District 6 again?"

"No, not in Panem." Gale raises an eyebrow at his leader and leans forward on his desk. "You told me once that if there were any opportunities for you to explore the world then you would gladly take them. Am I wrong?"

"No, sir." Gale _had_ said that, but he hadn't meant on a mission. He wanted to go searching for a blonde who liked strawberries, not stop battles he hadn't started. He didn't exactly know where to start with the former, however. "When do we leave?"

"You mean you," he said, taking the seat across from him. "Hawthorne, I'm getting old. I can't hop into war like I used to." Gale again raises one of his eyebrows and leans back in his chair. "You and your unit are going out to end some conflicts on the west coast of Erat, that's across the ocean boy."

"I know where it is. But, sir I don't think…" Gale starts, but Veto cuts him off.

"You're the strongest soldier in your rank, Gale. Top of your class, helped end the war. You're unstoppable. It's just a peace agreement."

"I'm just a private," Gale notes, but Veto shrugs. "Are you promoting me, Commander?"

"You could say that," he smirks. "Amicus has your plans, leave within the week." Veto stands and nods curtly at his favorite student and then goes to leave the room. He, however, pauses at the door. "Oh, and Hawthorne? Good luck."

* * *

Gale strides down the hall to room 315 where his best mate Amicus is waiting with battle plans. No longer held back with the feeling of sleep he's ready to jump into action. It's a privilege to be let off Panem on business. Well, technically business. Erat is where the country once known as Europe stands. They kept away from Panem at all costs with their vicious leaders and cruel Hunger Games, but now that the war was over they were working toward a peace agreement. Small steps at a time.

"Amicus, what's going on?" Gale asks as he peers over the paper spread across the island counter in the middle of the room. "Where we going?"

"Little town called Vobis," Amicus says back, walking into the room as he peers over a clipboard. The man in question was second in class right under Gale. The two were inseparable always fighting for the top spot. People would assume them to be enemies but they were just like each other. They had each others back since day one. "Right by the coast."

"Flight time?"

"Two hours and thirty six minutes approximately." Gale rolls his eyes. Approximately two hours and _thirty six minutes_. Smart ass. "You know, Gale," he says, his hands running over the short bouncing red curls on his head, "I didn't think you'd be too excited for this."

"And why the hell not? We're getting out of here, aren't we?"

"For a mission," Am stresses. "I don't know how much free time we'll have…"

"Who needs free time?" Gale snaps. Amicus settles into the stool across from him and sighs. "Why're you looking at me like that?"

"Why do you want to go to Erat?" he asks quietly. Amicus is the sensitive one in this friendship, obviously. "You requested it, I saw the file."

"I also requested going to Insula, Multis…"

"Esurio, Luto… all the continents, I know, I know. But _why, _Gale?" Gale scrunches his eyebrows and drops back down to look at the plan. Arrive at Vobis, make a peace agreement by ending a dispute… "Does it have to do with that one girl? Madge?"

Gale's eyes shoot back to Am who sits still, watching his best friend. "Who told you about her?"

"You did, and so did my sister." Gale groans, running his hands through his hair. "You mutter her name in your sleep sometimes. Also, Pulch said you yelled out Madge's name in bed instead of hers…"

"You talk about my sex life with your sister now?" he growls.

Amicus snickers, "She told me, I didn't ask. Believe me, talking about sex with my sister is weird enough but when it's sex with you…"

"Alright, Am," Gale groans again. "It was a one-time thing we were both drunk…"

"I don't need the details," he says quickly. "Please, spare me." There's a pause in the conversation as Gale rubs at his face, trying to push all memories of that night out, as well as the memories of Madge. He's failing. "So about this girl…"

"Just ask, would you? What do you want to know?"

"Who is she? Trying to impress someone from the District by traveling the world?"

Gale snorts, "I wish it was that simple. She's not in 2."

"Well, where is she?"

"I don't _know_, Am. Not in 2. Not even in Panem, okay? That's all I know." Again, Gale groans, but this time it's an inner groan. The world is _huge_, where was he going to find one girl? "She might not even be alive, I don't know."

"Well," Amicus starts, "the place we're going to is a known refugee center for people from Panem from before the war started." Gale's eyes light up at this announcement as his friend continues. "So it's a start."

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_A/N: Basically everyone that reviewed wanted more so here's some more! Not sure how long this story will be, probably not that long, but it's sure to have at least a few chapters. Gale isn't going to find Madge right away so be patient... it should be mildly enjoyable I think, anyway... Also all the country names I used are Latin, can you figure out which country is which? x_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three: The First Clues**

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The first thought that crosses Gale's mind is _quaint_. It reminds him of the buildings from his childhood, the small houses from the Seam that he tries to forget with every passing day. A crowd emerges at the craft lands, all circling around it with wide eyes. At first Gale panics as if this place wasn't aware of their visit, but Amicus made sure to check. Twice.

"You ready to find your girl?" Am asks him before the rest of the unit comes up to step off.

"No," Gale admits feebly. "But I'm ready to make a damn peace agreement and start looking."

"That's more like it," Amicus laughs.

The two are the first off the hovercraft, others following suit. The entire village looks shocked at their arrival, many taking steps away from them. One, however, rushes forward, a grin on his face.

"You must be Gale," he says giddily, shaking his hand before Gale even offers. He goes to yell at the strange man that this is no way to be acting, but Amicus laughs from next to him and shakes his hand just as excitedly. "Welcome to Vobis!"

It turns out Gale was wrong at first glance. The small homes that scatter the shore are only the tops of some very interesting buildings that dive deeper into the ground. It reminds him of 13, only these people are more advanced. They use their technology for good, not for evil like the Capitol did. Not only that, but Vobis isn't just a small village. It's not really small at all. It's the main population center for those in the commune. Communes in Erat are comparable to the districts in Panem. Currently they were in Commune Alpha, the main one besides the one where their Capital was.

Amicus is out of his mind reeling with all the special technology available to them. They have holographic maps that you can zoom in and see what's going on there, satellites that monitor the entire planet as well at the others they're aware of far off in the galaxy. Not only that but they're working on rainforest restoration in Luto where a great jungle once was, as well as many other side projects in the other nations.

"So here's the thing," the man that welcomed them says. His name's Levis and he's the most irritating person on the planet, Gale's decided. He has too much spring in his step, too big a smile. "Erat is the linking nation of the world. All the countries are bound together by us and our restoration projects, how we manage to get the world back to how it was when our ancestors were around."

"Exciting," Amicus grins. He's all about saving the planet. Hippie.

"Yeah, it is," Levis continues. "The thing is, Panem isn't on our friendly list."

"Hence the war and new balance of power," Gale mutters.

"Obviously," he rolls his eyes. "But that was only a few years ago." Gale clenches his jaw, it was five. He knows this because he celebrated his 20th birthday a few days after the Capitol fell and he's 25 now. That's more than a few. "We're still letting you all simmer down."

"The Capitol isn't in charge anymore," Gale tells him through his teeth. "We're willing to work to prove that we can be part of world relations again."

"Again," Levis laughs. "Panem never was. Not even Ancient America was very friendly with their neighbors." Gale groans inwardly because he's right. The place once known as the United States of America was only united within. They were part of world groups but always looked down upon. They kept their eye on all the other countries in the world to make sure they weren't a threat. Ever.

"Well then _start_," Gale stresses angrily. Amicus places his hand on his shoulder and pulls him back.

"Sorry, flying makes him cranky," he tells Levis. "You were saying?"

The smirking blonde continues his story, "Vobis is the first place on your stop for the treaty. Why they sent _you_," he looks toward Gale, "I'm not sure." Gale clenches his fists and takes a step back, knowing another reason he brought Am with him was because he was a better people person. As he looks around the room he stays listening to the conversation they have.

"Okay, and how do we go about that?" Amicus asks.

"Few signatures, trade agreements…" Levis' voice trails off as Gale squints at a file on the desk. KNOWN REFUGEES OF PANEM. He looks cautiously toward the two who are talking animatedly, their hands waving through the air as they speak. Slowly his fingers zip toward the edge. "What're you doing?" Levis snaps.

Gale pulls his hand away quickly and looks toward the two. "Nothing," Amicus walks over and peers down at the file, then sighs before mouthing something like _later_. "I'll just leave you two to sort out… whatever needs to be sorted out," Gale mutters before crossly leaving the room.

* * *

It's been two days. Two days _later_ and Gale is getting antsy. This place is _huge_, the golden blonde could surely be here somewhere. Right? He has to keep reminding himself that finding her isn't his main goal, but that's a lie. It is. Maybe not according to his work but deep inside he knows he has to. That he will. In the suffocating rooms of this new and improved District 13 his nightmares have increased, only making his intentions more prominent.

"Gale!" Amicus shouts from down the hall. He turns slowly to see his friend running after him. "I got you a meeting with this guy!"

"For the thousandth time, Am, I don't need a therapist…"

"No, you idiot," Am says, catching up to him. "He was the head supervisor for the refugee's right after the war started." Gale's eyes light up and he laughs.

"Really?"

"Yeah! Come on," then he grasps Gale's arm and pushes him down the hall quickly.

Gale doesn't know why he's so nervous as he waits in the overly white room to meet this guy. Juvo, that's his name. Apparently still actively helping the refugees. But Gale's nervous anyway. His foot bounces and he glances around the room as if there's a clock on one of the walls. White pictures frames with fading pictures hang against the white walls. He wishes he had a window to look out of. He feels claustrophobic.

The door cracks open and a tall man walks in, definitely not what Gale thought a man named Juvo would look like. He's a bit like Levis, a broad smile on his face as well as some messy blonde hair, but he at least has sweat on his brow like he actually gets something done. Older, definitely older than him. Kind of reminds him of Veto. Years of experience are evident on his face.

"Hawthorne," he extends his hand to him. Gale shakes it once and clenches his teeth. Why is he so nervous again? "Nice to meet you. Name's Juvo."

"Juvo," he repeats with a nod as if he didn't ask about it earlier, dropping his hand from his. "Pleasure."

"Your overly excited friend told me you're looking for someone, yeah?" Gale laughs at the description of Amicus and nods.

"Yeah, a girl."

"Always a girl," Juvo smirks, walking toward the back of the room where there's a huge file cabinet. "Well I hope I can help you." He yanks out a drawer and starts fingering through some files.

"Me too," Gale admits weakly. He's still nervous. His heart is still thudding. "Her name's Madge," he says. "Madge Undersee." The man in the back freezes in his search and turns to Gale.

"Did you say Undersee?"

"Yeah," Gale nods. "Madge." Juvo nods, stepping away from the files and closing the drawer slowly. "Do you know her?"

"I did," he notes. "Not anymore, though."

Gale's heart sinks into his chest and his eyebrows furrow. "What do you mean not anymore? She was here? What happened?" Questions tumble from his lips before he can stop them. "Where is she? Is she dead?"

"Slow down, boy," Juvo holds out his hand to silence him as he walks to the wall of photos. His finger taps at a frame and Gale nearly sprints over to look. "That your girl?" He peers over the shoulder of the man and sighs. It's her. Long tangled blonde hair spilling down her shoulders, a bright smile on her face. Even in the fading photo her bright blue eyes are piercing.

"Yeah," Gale whispers. "That's her." In her hands is a sapling like she was out in the woods planting. His insides clench as he pictures her in the woods. So unlike her, so like _him_. "Is she…" he can't bring himself to finish the sentence.

"Nah," Juvo shakes his head. "At least, not last time she sent."

"She sends mail?"

"It's rare," he tells him. "Maybe once every five months or so." He peels the frame from the wall and flips it over, unlatching the back and pulling it off carefully. Behind it sits a few more photos, a little older, as well as a few letters addressed to him.

"Were you close with her?"

"Not at first," he picks up the first pictures and examines it with a smile. "She was just another refugee, you know? But after her dad went she looked to me like she did him. I lost my daughter too, a flu hit and took them both, so she filled that spot. Good heart."

"Her father's dead?" he asks confused. "Since when?" Juvo slides into a seat at the table and Gale follows after him. His brain was craving knowledge. He needed to know everything that had happened to her.

"The Undersee's got here right before the big war broke out in Panem. They weren't obnoxious people, mostly kept to themselves. Someone once told me that they were the mayor's family back in whatever district they came from,"

"Yeah," Gale nods. "District 12."

"That's right," Juvo nods. "12. You wouldn't know though, they were really humble. Anyway, the wife was first to go. She was sick when they got here. Something to do with her head." Gale thought back to how Mrs. Undersee was often stuck in bed with unbearable headaches. He doubted they were able to bring obscene amounts of morphling with them to keep her pain at bay. "A rare strand of the common flu went around and wiped out about a hundred of us, Madge's parents included." Juvo hands him a picture and Gale smiles brightly at it despite the sad news.

It's of Madge again, this time she's got a small girl in her arms. A toddler, he's guessing, with red hair that dangles to her shoulders in wide curls. Both look like they're laughing like something hilarious just happened and they couldn't hold their pose any longer.

"When'd she leave?" he asks quietly, handing the picture back.

He shrugs, "Few years ago. She keeps in touch, though."

"Where's she now?"

Again he shrugs, "This is the last letter I got from her." He hands over the yellowed envelope carefully and Gale hesitates at first, feeling as though he might be intruding. Ultimately his curiosity overwhelms him and he peels it from his hand, staring at it in his hands before setting it down on the table again. "She left a few months after her father died. I know she wanted to stay but she just couldn't. I offered to go with her, even."

"But she wanted to be alone?" Gale suggests, and he nods. "Typical Undersee."

He laughs, "She was really quiet and shy at first but I really think she loved what we do. How we're helping restore things. If you want to find her that's where you look. The restoration centers. I'll make you a list of all the major ones, alright? Send it to your unit before you leave."

He nods in response, glancing over at the other pictures Juvo's laid out. Madge with her arms crossed angrily across her chest as she makes a face at the camera. Madge with dirt smudged across her face. Madge with her head thrown back, he can almost hear her laughing.

Gale gnaws at the inside of his cheek at sets the photos down with a shaky hand. "She's alive," he whispers to himself. Juvo watches him as he scans through the photos, smiling as Gale's eyes light up.

"Take that one," he motions to the picture he's got his hands on now. The one of her laughing.

"No, it's yours," he set it back down. "I couldn't."

"Then at least take the letter," Juvo motions to the letter Gale's placed to the side. He wanted to open it but didn't want Juvo's prying eyes. "For me. It'll help you." Gale nods grudgingly and slides the letter into his jacket pocket promising to read it later. "How'd you know her, anyway?"

"I like to think we were friends," Gale says quietly. "Maybe more. I don't know." Juvo smirks and Gale looks away before his cheeks flare up.

"Well, Gale, I believe if anyone could find her it could be you. Just tell let her know I miss her when you do, alright?" Gale laughs and nods slowly. "Oh, and Hawthorne? Good luck."

* * *

_A/N: Similar advice, yeah? Thanks for the reviews guys, you're the best! By the way, I totally love Amicus. He's perf._


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four: Realizations**

* * *

_Dear Juvo,_

_I'm sorry it's been such a long time since I've written. It's not entirely my fault considering the postal service is tragic, but I have to admit I had your last letter for a few days before I responded. Every time I went to write I would just have this blank piece of paper sitting in front of me, and I would end up leaving it there. It's hard to keep in touch with all of the people back in Alpha, but mostly you. You're so much like my own father I feel as though I'm writing to him. _

_I've been well, you could say. Tired, mostly. The rest we get here is short but refreshing. As much as I love it I can't deny I missed the nightlife of Multis. All those giant towers and flashing lights were hypnotizing. I have to be honest, I couldn't stay there. It reminded me too much of the Capitol with everyone's gaudy outfits and crazy hair. It's a lot different than life in the commune. _

_I love the wilderness, who would've guessed? I mean, I suppose you did when you sent me on all of those missions. You knew I was dying to break out of my comfort zone. It reminds me of home, in a way. A strange piece of home that I never had the chance to fully experience. So I thank you for that. _

_Things with Alend have been… difficult. He's hard to deal with, his letters are always so harsh. I think he wants to talk but I refuse to do that after what he did to me. Maybe that's petty of me but what he did was even worse. It was for the better, I think now. Alend didn't know what to do, and I guess I didn't really either. He's probably why I don't want to come back to Alpha. Please don't judge me for that. _

_Anyway, I should write you more. I know I won't, which is rude of me, but I should. I've just been busy stuffing trees in the ground and trying to move on with my life. Luto's beautiful. You should visit one day, perhaps. How's Layla been? Does she miss me? Send a picture if you get the chance, I bet she's grown a lot. _

_I don't know what else to say, other than that I miss you. I miss a lot of things from Alpha, I guess, but mostly you. I couldn't ask for a better father figure in my life than you. Keep me updated, please. Just because I don't always respond to your letters doesn't mean I don't always read them. _

_Lots of love, Madge. _

Gale set the letter down and sighed, running his fingers through his hair. Undersee was in Luto. _Luto. _That was so close, and yet so terribly far. There was no possible way he'd be able to get special allowance to go searching. This letter was the only thing he had as a lead anyway, she could be anywhere. The least she could have done was name some _specifics_.

"What's that?" Amicus zooms in the room and snatches the letter off of Gale's desk. He's too slow to grab it back from his friend's hands. "So the guy knew her?" Am's a speed reader. "She's in Luto?"

"Give it back," Gale groans, reaching again for the yellowed piece of paper. To calm his friend, Amicus reaches in his back pocket and extracts a small envelope, tossing it at Gale's head. "Ow," he mutters, rubbing at his eye. "Gonna make me blind… what's this?"

"Just open it," Am rolls his eyes, sitting on the edge of the bed and continuing to scan the letter. "This girl has pretty handwriting. It's all loopy."

"Great, glad you think so," he mutters, opening the envelope. Inside are the papers Juvo said he'd get to Gale before they left. A list of all the restoration centers Madge might be at. It was a huge list. _Huge_. There were dozens of centers in each nation, how was he supposed to just pick one? Was he just supposed to hope for the best?

"I highlighted the ones we should look at," Amicus tells him, laying back on the bed and holding the letter over his head as if he's still reading it though he's definitely done by now.

"What do you mean we? What do you mean _look at_?"

"Well," he sits up and lays the paper next to him. "We got all our papers signed today so we're free to head back to Panem. Trade agreement has been established."

Gale's eyebrows rise to his forehead, "Really?"

"Yeah, and let me just tell you it's a lot easier when you're not there shouting things."

"Thanks," Gale mutters, reaching to snatch the letter back. Am, however, slid it out of the way. "Just be careful with it, yeah?"

"Sure thing," he rolls his eyes again and goes back to lying down. Gale continues filing through the papers. Full reports of each station and what was being done there. "Right, Juvo also crossed out the ones she most definitely wouldn't be at."

"How would he know?" Gale growls.

"He'd known her for years," Am shrugs, "I'd say it's safe." Something slips through the papers and slides onto the floor, Gale leans down and picks it up. It's a photo, attached to it is a sticky note.

"_I know you said you didn't need a picture,"_ it reads, _"but please, take it for me. -Juvo." _Underneath was a telephone number and an address.

"Crazy old man," Gale mutters, but a smile plays at his lips. In his hands isn't a picture he had seen during the meeting, but another. Madge stands curtsying at an awkward position, smiling. She's wearing a dress that stops above her knees, a summer dress. It's blue and matches her eyes. Her hair is curled in ringlets that tumble down her shoulders. This picture is recent. It's not yellowed, it's not grayed.

"Look," Amicus points from over his shoulder. "You can see the trees in the background. She's got to be in Luto, Gale."

"Yeah," he smiles. "Maybe." The thought that she's still alive is still processing through him. Amicus studies his friend as he studies the photo. His eyes light up, he's _smiling. _Gale doesn't smile.

"What happens if you find her?" Amicus asks gently. "Is she going to run into your arms as you embrace romantically and the waves splash behind you…" he trails off when Gale shoves him sideway. "Sorry," he snickers, "but really."

Gale collapses into the chair at his desk and sighs, "I don't know."

There's a long pause and then Amicus asks, "Tell me about her? You guys?"

Gale rubs his face and sets the picture down. "We kind of hated each other," he says quietly. "For awhile, I think." Am raises an eyebrow and then Gale laughs. "I mean she was the mayor's daughter and I came from the poorer part of town."

"As of right now this isn't sounding very good…" Am mumbles.

"Well when Katniss, you know Katniss, yeah?" Am nods. "Right, well when Katniss was forced into the Games Madge and I kind of became friends, I guess. I mean we would talk a lot more, but then we wouldn't. After I found out she was the one that sent me the medicine after my whipping I got really… mad. I guess. I wouldn't talk to her."

"So she saves your life with fancy medicine and you stop talking to her. You're a great person, you know that?"

Gale flips him off and continues his story. "When Katniss was put in the Games again I would hang out with the guys a lot. One night when I was with them Madge just came up to me out of nowhere and planted one on me. Right there in the middle of the square. Things escalated a bit and…"

"How many times do I have to tell you to spare me the details?" Amicus groans.

"We didn't do that," Gale laughs. "It just felt… right. I don't know."

"And now, how many years later, five? Six? You decide that you want to find her and… what, exactly?"

Gale turns to his friend and knits his eyebrows. "I-I don't know…"

Amicus nods slowly and looks away uncomfortably. "Listen, it sounds great and all… but…"

"But I sound crazy?" Gale mutters angrily. "Yeah, thanks, I'm well aware." Of course he sounded crazy. He was going on a wild goose chase for a girl that most likely had no feelings for him whatsoever. But he couldn't get her out of his _mind_.

"It's not that, I mean it's kind of sweet…" he tries to stay supporting, "but what happens if you find her and she's married? Or has two kids? Or totally forgets about that night?"

"I don't _know_, Am." Gale leans forward and slams his head on his desk. "I don't know. I thought she was dead for the longest time and now that she's alive I just gotta know…"

"I can understand that, I guess." Amicus pauses and looks over at the photo on the desk, he had to admit she was pretty. Gale had good taste. "So, Luto?"

"How the hell are we gonna get to Luto," Gale grumbled. "We gotta go back to Panem and…"

"And then leave for Luto," Am cuts him off. "I called Veto. Had a few words…"

"Veto _hates_ you!" Gale snaps up.

"Yeah, but he _loves_ you," Amicus stresses. "So you and me get a vacation! Looking for the girl of your dreams! Your true love!"

"Stop," Gale cuts him off. "I just want to talk to her. That's all. Just once. And then I can move on, I guess." But he didn't know if he could. He was building this all up inside his mind, he _knew_ that, but there was something else.

"Sure," Am waggles his eyebrows. "We leave tomorrow. Pack your stuff."

* * *

_A/N: This story will be told from Gale's perspective, and we'll learn more about her as we search to find her. Also, Gale knows looking for Madge is crazy, but there's just something inside him that is forcing him to do it. Like he has to. Haven't you ever got that feeling before? I don't want him to seem creepy because he's not being creepy, haha. Just thoughts. _


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five: Nena and Mimi Folia**

* * *

The hovercraft lands outside Research Center 12 in Luto and Gale finds himself getting more and more nervous. What if she's not here? What if she's dead? What if she forgets him? What does he do when he finds her? Will he find her?

"You've got that look in your eye like you're going to throw up," Amicus hits Gale's shoulder. "Relax, Gale, I'll do all the talking." Gale nods and rubs at his forehead. "You're not gonna puke, are you?"

"No," he forces out. "Just get off the ship," Gale pushes him toward the door. The two descend the stairs of their own personal hovercraft, much smaller than the one they usually ride with their crew, and glance around. The area in which they landed is clear, yet beyond them sprout up little trees.

"Looks recent," Am smirks, walking toward the building. It's large and brick, doesn't remind Gale anything of what he's ever lived in. The heat of the sun pounding on them evaporates when the doors _woosh_ shut behind them, closing the outside off. Cool air swirls the room around them and they sigh in relief. "Damn, how anyone lives this close to the equator is past me."

"We do it," a voice causes the two men to snap around, "because it's helping the environment." A pretty brunette smiles back at them, her hair pinned up in a strange fashion to keep it off her neck. "Welcome to Center 12."

"Glad to be here," Am shoots back with a grin, striding across the room and extending his hand. Gale follows after slowly, his eyes searching the large room with giant windows spanning the walls.

"How can I help?" she says a few minutes later after Gale reaches her and shakes her hand as well. "I'm Nena, by the way," she smiles politely.

"Amicus Carisio," he nods. "Gale Hawthorne." He points to his friend. "We're looking for someone."

"Aw, you're not here to work?" she sighs, sitting down at the desk and sliding her chair over toward the computer, typing in a few buttons. "Shame, it'd be nice to have some more guys around here." Am leans over the desk and looks toward the screen as Gale continues to glance around the room. This place, this small center outside of Panem is so different than anything he'd ever experienced. Certificates hung on the walls, golden prints on them and everything. Camera's weren't swooping down to keep watch, not everything was technical. "Doesn't he have a voice," Nena's eyes glance toward Gale who looks at her quickly.

"This place is amazing," he says simply. "I'm just not used to it."

"You're from Panem, eh?" she smirks. "Of course you are. The overdeveloped power hungry maniacs. How's your country post war?"

"Funny," Amicus slides off the desk and crosses his arms.

"Not bad different," Gale mutters. "Just different. It's nice."

She laughs, "I was just kidding. Kind of. You're looking for someone?" she hits a few more buttons on a keyboard. A keyboard with _letters_. And it isn't touch screen. It's… old. "Male or female?"

"Female," Gale says, his elbows on the counter above her desk now.

"Always a girl," Nena chuckles, tapping the screen with her fingers this time. "Last name?"

"Undersee."

A few more buttons later and a couple taps the girl across the counter shakes her head. "No one with that name here," she says. "I'm sorry." Gale sighs and steps away from the counter, his hand reaching into his pocket to extract the photo he started keeping here. "I can try searching other nearby Centers though, if you'd like?"

"Please," Amicus says. He strides back over to Gale and places his hand on his shoulder. "Hey, we'll find her, alright?"

"Sure," Gale replies, his gaze on the picture. He and Amicus walk back over to Nena who's got her brow creased as she rapidly types and clicks and taps. "I don't expect you to find anything," he says, sort of irritated.

"Well don't doubt me yet," she replies, raising an eyebrow. "You're not very optimistic are you?"

"Not in the least," Amicus answers for him.

"Well," Nena turns her screen toward them. "You should be. Undersee comma Madge. Center 3 of Luto. And you had no faith in me," she smirks, crossing her arms in victory. "Mr. Hawthorne, I believe you owe me an apology…"

"Look at the date," he jabs a finger at the screen with a frown. "That was three years ago."

"Gale," Amicus says, "she gave us a lead, you can at least,"

He shakes his head and cuts his friend off, "I need some air." Gale tosses the picture on the counter and stalks toward the door. "Stupid humid weather."

"You know Mimi?" Nena looks at the picture he threw, squinting her eyes. Gale pauses in his step and turns around to face her. Nena's eyes light up with excitement as she takes it into her own hands, studying it carefully. "Oh my God!"

"Mimi?" Amicus asks confused, looking toward Gale. "Who's Mimi?"

"Mimi!" Nena holds up the picture. "Mimi Folia!"

Gale shakes his head, "That's not Mimi, that's Madge."

"No, it's Mimi," Nena hops off her chair and falls to her knees, sorting through the drawers of her desk. "I'd recognize that girl anywhere." Gale slowly makes his way back toward the counter and she pops up, shoving a picture frame toward him. "Mimi!"

"Sweet God," Amicus snatches the picture from her. "That's… that's…"

"That's _Madge_," Gale rips it from his friend's hand. "Who the _hell_ said her name was Mimi?"

"She did!" Nena crosses her arms. "If you had just _said_ that's the girl you were looking for then…" Gale's eyes widen as he studies the image before him. Damn that girl, her hair tied up in some elaborate fashion, arms linked with a younger Nena. Dirt's smudged across her forehead and knees like she'd just been planting. "She was one of my best friends," Nena smiles at the picture. "When she was here, that is."

"No you don't understand," Amicus tells her as Gale remains speechless. "That's Madge, that's who he's looking for."

"She switched Centers," Nena replies sadly, sinking back into her chair. "Middle of the night. Didn't even say goodbye, just left a note. Didn't even say where she was going."

"Rude," Am says, but Nena laughs.

"But I understand why she did it." Gale's still studying the picture, the way her bangs slip out of her hairpin, the way her bare feet smoosh into the ground below her. "That was a little under three years ago." She looks back toward the screen. "After this Madge girl left Center 3. She must've come here next."

"Search for a Mimi whatever in other places!" Amicus says, bouncing on his toes. "This is exciting! We're like solving a mystery!" Gale finally looks back up, his gray eyes calm, the anger dissipated. Nena is back typing at her computer but she shakes her head.

"Nothing," she frowns again. "Why would she lie about her name?"

"Why not?" Amicus laughs. "This girl sounds like a hell of a lot of fun!" Gale pauses at his comment and wonders too why she'd change her name.

"Any other place she might be?" Gale leans over the counter again, his eyes trained on the screen as she clicks away. "Anything she said?"

"I'm thinking," she replies. "She liked working with the animals so I'm running a program that compares all of the Centers with animal programs like the ones we have here." A few seconds later a beep escapes her computer and she has a more refined list. "These might be a nice start."

"Well let's go!" Amicus grabs it from her hand and starts toward the door.

"Wait!" she calls, causing the two boys to pause in her step. "Flight time," she says. Gale checks his watch and groans, no one between _this time _and _that time_, the most inconvenient times ever. Stupid Luto laws. Now they're going to have to stay here overnight.

"You mean we gotta wait until six in the morning to start our adventure?" Am sighs, throwing his head back. "At least we can stock up on fuel and supplies. You got any place we can stay?"

Nena smiles, "Not that you could rent, but I've got a spare room and a pull out couch if you'd like."

"Sounds great," Amicus smiles back. "I'll go get our stuff," he tells Gale, jogging back toward the door.

Nena and Gale stand watching each other for a moment. "You're right," Gale says. "I owe you an apology. I'm sorry." Nena laughs and shrugs, her hands finding the back pockets of her shorts. "Will you tell me about her?"

"Who, Mimi?" Gale nods, so does Nena. "Sure, I can do that. What would you like to know?"

A grin breaks across Gale's face. "Everything."

* * *

_A/N: Gale and Amicus will come in contact with a lot of people who knew "Madge" and that's how they learn to follow her trail and learn more about her. Next chapter is filled with stories Nena tells about her and Madge's adventures. Enjoy x_


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Last Goodbye**

* * *

"I call the guest room!" Amicus shouts, barreling past Gale into Nena's apartment. His bag swings and hits Gale as he runs by him, causing Gale to clench his fists, and slowly unclench them. Nena pats Gale on the shoulder gently and offers him a smile, walking past him as well.

"To the left!" she calls out to Am who dips into the room. The squeak of the bed echoes as he stretches and his sigh fills the apartment. "Been a long time since you've had a normal bed?" she asks Gale as he sets his duffle bag on the couch.

"You could say that," he rubs his face slowly. "Can I get something to drink, please?"

"Oh, of course," she rushes to the kitchen, able to see him through the open wall. "I should have offered, my apologies." Gale smirks and lowers himself onto the couch, sighing much as Am had at the relief his legs are receiving. He'd been standing for what felt like days. "Beer?"

"Please," Gale says again.

"Make it two!" Amicus shouts from the hall as he emerges from the room. "Please," he adds with a smile, collapsing on the couch next to Gale. Moments later Nena walks out, her hair now trailing down her back, and hands them their bottles. She takes the armchair across from them and pulls a lever so the bottom springs out. To both the boys the chair seems so… underdeveloped.

"It's a family heirloom," she laugh at the faces they're making. "Trust me, we have fancy chairs like you, too."

"Right," Am tips the head of his bottle at her then takes a swig. Gale laughs, doing the same. "Nice place, Nena. All by yourself?"

"I _had_ a roommate," she mutters, sipping on her own drink.

"Right," Am says again, tipping his drip back into a greater swig than before. Gale fiddles with the bottle in his hands. "So, I haven't seen many people around here."

She shrugs, "We're not a very busy Center, hence the reason I was so excited to see you guys." Gale snorts and takes a swig. "I think that's why Mimi… Madge. Sorry, I'm still getting used to that." Gale shrugs. "I think that's why she left. She liked meeting new people," Nena continues. "I mean I've wanted to leave but this is my home, I don't know."

"Well I like it," Amicus kicks his feet up on the coffee table. Gale leans over and pushes them off, giving him a glare.

Nena laughs, "No it's okay. I like it too. It's kind of lonely." She shrugs again and looks at the floor. "I guess I've just always hoped everyone that left would come back."

"I got tired of waiting," Gale mumbles. Nena smiles and holds her glass out like a cheer, Gale mimicking, then they both take a swig. "When's the last time you left?"

"Umm," she thinks for a moment, then frowns. "About eight years ago, I think."

"Travel's free, though," Amicus notes. "I mean like, no special permissions or anything, you can just go."

"I know," she replies, "but I just can't." Despite not feeling the same way, Gale understands what she means. That hope that she's clinging to someone will return for her.

"You could come with us," Gale suggests. "You know, to find Madge."

Nena's eyes light up, but then she drops her gaze. "I don't know. Maybe."

"Yeah!" Amicus grins, "You should come!" Nena smiles but still keeps her eyes on the ground. "Oh, God that'd be awesome! We could, like, be a team and just solve crimes and make the world better."

"Maybe," she says again, but this time she's grinning. The night carries on with questions such as that. All three talk about their families, their real homes, their lives. The drinks continue and Am's the first one to go, passed out in his bed hanging off the side. Nena's the one that gets him there through gentle words and soft touches.

"Sorry," Gale laughs when she returns to the living room. "I shouldn't have let him drink."

"It's fine," she says back with a smile. "Is he straight?"

"Straight?" Gale thinks for a minute, but then realizes what she's asking. "Oh! Oh, yeah, yeah I think. I don't know," he shrugs. "Don't really care." She nods a few times and then laughs. "But you do, oh God. Yeah, yeah I think he's straight."

"Good," she cheers, leaning back in her armchair. "What about you?"

"Straight," he nods with a smirk, his head filled with air.

"For Madge?" she waggles her eyebrows and he snorts into his hand.

"I haven't seen her in five years, Nena."

"Distance makes the heart grow fonder…" she tells him in a singsong voice. He laughs again, and then so does she. "So her name's really Madge?"

"Yep," Gale nods. "Undersee. Madge Undersee," he rubs his face again and realizes this is the only way to do this. Openly talk about her. He has to be drunk. "She drove me up the _wall_," he tells her.

"Oh, me too," she laughs. "She was insane, lots of fun."

"What else?" he lays back on the couch and stares at the ceiling. "Anything."

"Um," Nena taps her chin and tries thinking. "Okay. I remember when she first got here, she came on this hovercraft from Erat and no one liked people from Erat because they were all snooty and what not." Gale laughs. "She changed everyone's mind eventually, of course. Wanted to just jump right into work. She tried it all, planting, herding animals, God she loved the animals. It was like she knew what they were _saying_."

"Right," Gale continues to laugh.

"Right," Nena repeats. "I couldn't stand her at first. All she did was talk about her life in Erat."

"What was that like?"

She snickers, "Perfect, at first. The things she said. She talked about how she lived with this guy who was like her dad and babysat this little girl who had beautiful red hair and was like her little sister." Gale thinks for a minute, must be the Layla girl he read about in the letter. "She showed me pictures. I think she missed her a lot."

"I'll bet."

"Yeah, there was that and then how she had all these special privileges because of the guy who was like her dad and all about her piano and yadda yadda," Nena fakes a yawn. "She killed me."

"Typical," Gale grins.

"Well one day we were sent into the forest together and I wanted to die. Like, literally die. She kept rambling about this one time she was serving people in a restaurant and this guy kept hitting on her but she wasn't interested and she just kept going and going and going." Nena shakes her head. "But then she stopped. She just stopped all of a sudden, talking about the guy. Kinda scared me to be honest."

"What then?"

"I asked if she was alright, obviously," Nena rolls her eyes. "And then, maybe I shouldn't tell you," she says quickly. Gale sits up and looks at her, his head slowly starting to simmer back to normal. "Well, alright. She started like, crying, I guess. Then she started saying sorry over and over and I just asked what was wrong and then she told me about that guy at the restaurant."

"He didn't do anything to her, did he?" Gale asks angrily. "Nena,"

"No," she shakes her head. "They dated for awhile after that though. Some guy… crap what was his name. Aric, A something…"

"Alend?" Gale suggests weakly. The name from the letter. Her eyes light up.

"That! It was that! Yeah, something happened with him and she started crying about it but wouldn't say what and then she kept saying sorry. That probably should've annoyed me more but I felt really bad for her because I knew that was why she left." There's a pause as Nena fiddles with the bottle in her hand. "Maybe that's why she left here too, I guess. Didn't want to get too attached to anyone."

"That might be why I'm always traveling," Gale replies gruffly. "Anything else about Alend?"

"She didn't like talking about him," Nena says. "I think they might've been engaged. Married, even. She'd reach for her ring finger a lot like there was a ring there once. I don't know."

"Right," Gale swallows. Why does the thought of Madge being engaged or married to anyone make his stomach knot? It shouldn't. Yet it does.

"If Am hadn't said your name I mighta thought you were him," she tells him. "Tall, dark hair, devilishly handsome."

Gale laughs and shakes his head. "You're a mess."

"You're the one looking for someone that you haven't seen in a thousand years," she scoffs. "If anyone's a mess it's you."

"I don't want to think I missed out on something," he says quietly. "I don't want to just give up on her. She _did_ say I could see her again," he scratches his forehead. "She hadn't even planned on returning to Panem. Maybe that whole night was just that, the last goodbye."

"She talked about Panem a few times," Nena says. "Said if she ever went back she couldn't go to 12 cuz her parents, or something. I don't know. It's been awhile."

"Did she talk about the war?"

"No, she hated whenever it was brought up. Sometimes it would get to the point where she'd just stand up and leave, her face going pale and everything." She sighs, running her hand through her hair. "I always wanted to ask."

"She left before it got bad," Gale mutters. "I was on the front lines."

"Team Mockingjay? Star Squad?"

"That's me," he laughs. "Captured by peacekeepers and everything."

"Like a legend," she grins.

"Like a bad dream," Gale mutters. "I wish it never happened." He pauses and rubs at the stubble on his chin. "She knew the whole time it was going to happen, that's why she got out."

"Mi- Madge?"

"Yeah," he nods. "She told me so. Told me to get out."

"And you did," Nena notes.

"Barely," Gale replies. "God, the whole place went up in flames." Nena sits back and watches as Gale's eyes darken while he recalls the events he rarely speaks of. "I still hear the screams," he rests his head in his hands. "People begging for help… they were innocent people… I couldn't save them…"

"You can't save everyone," Nena says quietly. "And that's not your fault, Gale."

"Then why do I feel so guilty?" he mutters, pressing his eyes in. He knows why. God, he _knows_ why. "You know Katniss Everdeen?" he asks quietly.

"Who doesn't?" Nena asks back, attempting to lighten the mood again.

"She's my best friend," he says. "Besides, Am of course."

"Right," she watches as he rubs a steady pattern into his face. "Yeah, that makes sense being on the Star Squad and all. I never watched any of the footage, they didn't want to broadcast it out to us..."

"I killed her sister," Gale says, his voice cracking. "Prim. God, I killed her…"

"Gale," she furrows her eyebrows, maybe trying to remember the name or the story.

"No," he shakes his head refusing to pull his head up. "I killed her. I made these bombs meant to be used against the Capitol and they went off and killed _her_…"

"Hey," Nena leaps from her chair and crosses the room to Gale, resting her arms gently on his shoulder. "Does your friend think you did it? Katniss?"

"No, but–" he lifts his head out of his hands.

"No, enough of that. You didn't do anything. War's a bad time, bad things happen. That's that."

"But, Prim…" She was so innocent, so sweet. Prim wouldn't hurt a fly. Primrose Everdeen was the most caring, gentle person he had ever met.

"Is that why you're so adamant about finding Madge?" she asks gently. He furrows his brows and looks away from her. The thought never crossed his mind. It was always about finding Madge just so he could find her, he never considered it to be about Prim. But was it? No. It couldn't be. "Trying to save someone?"

"But Madge is fine," he says, trying to convince himself. Of course she's fine, she has to be fine. "Right?" The thought of her not being fine gnaws at him. The thought that she might be dead in a ditch and he'll never know.

"Most likely," she removes her hand, "but you aren't one hundred percent sure. That's why you're searching."

"I don't know, Nena," he grumbles. "It's not about Prim, it's about…" he trails off, because Gale doesn't know what it's about. "I'm tired." Maybe it's about both.

"Alright, Gale," she says quietly. "Do you want me to pull out the…"

"No," he shakes his head. "No, I'm alright. Goodnight, Nena." He lies back on the couch, taking a pillow and pulling it over his head instead of using it, hanging his feet over the edge.

She sighs, "Goodnight, Gale." But he doesn't sleep for a few more hours. Gale stares at the ceiling and thinks until his head feels like it might implode. This is better than the nightmares.

* * *

Gale wakes up to the sweet sound of sizzling bacon echoing from the kitchen. He stays where he is for a few moments and listens to voices as they carry over. Amicus laughing at something that probably wasn't funny, Nena scolding him. The _smell_ of the food is what finally gets him off the couch. Gale leans over and cracks his back, then rolls his shoulders. He makes his way out of the living room.

"Well, look who's awake!" Nena teases lightly.

"Oh my God, Gale," Amicus says through a mouthful of something. "Nena is the best cook in existence I feel like I'm floating up to heaven as we _speak_."

"He's only saying that because we haven't had decent food in months," Gale shoots to Nena who sticks her tongue out at him. "Well it's true, neither of us can cook so we use that insta stuff."

"I quite like the insta steak," Am mutters, taking another bite of the food from his plate.

"Yeah," Gale rolls his eyes. "It's delicious." Nena snickers and places a plate in front of Gale.

"Eat up," she tells him, "it'll help with the hangover." He rolls his eyes again and shovels his fork into the eggs, sighing when the sweet taste reaches his tongue. Okay, maybe she could cook. "Was that a sigh of delight I heard?" she returns to the stove.

"That it was," Am says for him. "That it was."

"You should come with us and cook all our meals," Gale says. "Free travel for food."

"What a deal," Nena snorts.

The rest of the day carries on with Gale complaining that everyone's talking too loud and Nena shutting down all attempts of Amicus trying to woo her over. She thinks it's funny. It's very funny. Even Am thinks so at times. But eventually, the time rolls around for the two men to pack their bags and head out for another Center in Luto, hoping to catch a trail.

Amicus is reluctant to leave, he likes the temporary home that they've stayed in, as well as the friendly girl that it comes with, but Gale's his best friend and he wouldn't let him go alone.

"Well," he says sadly to Nena. "I guess this is goodbye."

"Not forever, right?" she asks quickly. "You'll come back and visit? Once you find her?"

"Of course we will," Gale reassures her, hugging her tightly. "You've been great, thanks for putting up with us."

"My pleasure," she says back with a saddened smile. The hug she gives Amicus is much longer than the one she gives Gale. "See you soon, I guess," she waves as they start their path down the hallway and out to the dispatch center.

"Bye, Nena," Am frowns. The two walk silently for a few moments before Amicus speaks. "I'm gonna miss her. I really liked her."

"I could tell," Gale says with a smirk.

"No, Gale," Am rolls his eyes. "I mean she was nice, she was different…"

"Perhaps," Gale shrugs. He doesn't really want to leave either. Maybe it _was_ the girl that made the impression. The thoughts she made him confront instead of push back. Just as they're boarding their ship a small voice cries out.

"Wait! Wait!" They both pause on the ladder and look down, a crazy brunette waving at them.

"What'd you forget?" Gale asks Amicus, who just shrugs in response.

"What's up?" Amicus climbs back down. Gale follows after, studying the frantic staggering of her hair and the small duffle bag that hangs over her shoulder.

"Do you," she pants, obviously have ran the way here, "maybe, perhaps…"

Amicus grins, "Go on."

"Have room for one more?" she finishes with a smile. "It's about time I got out of here. I'll cook for you guys if that can be my pay, I just want to find Mim- ugh, Madge, and I want to see places not here and I want to help. I want to make a difference I can't just sit here waiting and…"

"Yes!" Amicus shouts. "God, yes! Now let's go before she changes her mind!" Then he shoves her toward the ladder, past Gale, and makes her climb as she laughs. "Team Find People!" Am cheers, climbing up the ladder after her. Gale grins, climbing up the ladder after them. Team.

* * *

_A/N: Yay Nena! I couldn't leave her, she's too much fun! Onto the next Center, shall we?_


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Center 21**

* * *

Amicus and Nena are still sleeping when Gale's eyes shoot open to the steady ring of a phone. He forces himself out of the small mattress he calls a bed and lumbers through the living room, taking note of a snoozing Nena on the couch and stepping over a passed out Am on the floor. Gale jabs at a button and pulls the pilots door shut so he doesn't wake his friends. The face of Katniss Everdeen appears on the screen in front of him.

"Hey Catnip," Gale yawns and collapses into the seat. "What's up?"

"Oh, it's still early there?" she looks around his screen and notes the darkness. The sun isn't even up yet. "Sorry."

"It's alright, what's wrong?" He takes in the appearance of his best friend, messy wild brown hair instead of tied back as usual. "Is everything alright in Panem?"

She laughs lightly and nods, "Yes, Gale, everything's fine. You'd think a vacation would involve you _not_ worrying about the political structure of our country."

"Yeah, well," Gale rubs at his eyes. Nena and Amicus decided to drink again last night and spent half the time laughing obnoxiously over things that weren't funny. It made him feel lonely, so he ended up going to bed. Their cheers managed to ring through his door, however, and he barely got a wink of sleep. "What's up?" he asks again, hoping to make the conversation quick so he can rush back to bed before the other two get up.

"Amicus called me last night,"

"Oh God," Gale groans. "Sorry, he was…"

"Drunk," Katniss smirks. "Trust me, I'm well aware. He started singing Panem's national anthem and then laughing hysterically." Gale laughs and kicks his feet up on the dashboard. "Don't worry, I recorded it. But that's not why I called." Gale's eyebrows furrow as the screen flickers, readjusting to a different satellite. "He said you were looking for Madge." Gale drops his gaze and acts as though there's suddenly something very important to be looking at, although there isn't. He knew he'd have to talk about this sooner or later with her, but he was hoping it was later. Much, much later. "Gale, Madge's dead…"

"No she's not," Gale mutters. "She left the district before the bombings."

"Thom found…"

"Bodies in the house," Gale finishes for her. "Thanks, I'm well aware of that. But whose bodies? I don't know, neither do you." There's a pause as Katniss sighs, leaning back and reaching for a hair tie on her wrist. "In Erat I met a guy who knew her, and then here in Luto a girl who did. She's not dead, Catnip." He fiddles around on the dashboard until he finds the picture Nena brought, holding it up to the camera. "See? That's her." His best friend's eyes go wide and she leans forward, pulling her hair to one side of her head so she can braid it. "She's out there."

"Okay," Katniss frowns, splitting her hair into three separate sections. "I… give me a minute." She drops her gaze from the camera and continues to work her braid, not speaking until her nimble fingers have sufficiently folded her hair perfectly down her side. "Okay. So Madge is alive." Gale nods and chews on his lip. "And you're looking for her?" Again, he nods. Now for the hard questions. "Why?"

"Because," he says slowly. "Because I want to find her."

"Don't pull that with me," she crosses her arms. "Why are you looking for her?" His eyes stay dropped and Katniss growls angrily, crossing her arms across her chest.

"We were friends for awhile when you went in the Games," he says quietly. "The first time. Stopped talking once you got back." Her grey eyes glisten as he speaks, leaning forward in her chair as though she can get closer to his story. "And then she brought me the morphling and it made me even angrier because she was so privileged and I wasn't and I just cut her out of my life completely."

"So you want to find her and harass her? Great, wonderful." Katniss sits back in her chair. "Two of my best friends with a secret friendship I knew _nothing_ about, awesome."

"Well we weren't friends for awhile," he bites out at her. "But then you went in a second time," he says gently. Gale's well aware that the topic is tough for her. She even fidgets uncomfortably in her chair. "And, well, she… she told me she was leaving." Yes, nice save. Avoid the topic all together. "And I knew I had to find her."

"Oh that's a load of _bull_," Katniss rolls her eyes. "You're telling me you're traveling around the world to find Madge because you want to find her? For no reason whatsoever other than to find her? Who do you take me for, Peeta?" Gale snorts at the comment and rubs at his eyes again. "You had a thing with her, didn't you?"

"It was one night," he admits weakly. "After you left, I… I don't know…"

"That's why you didn't come back to 12, isn't it?" Her tone isn't angry or accusatory, it's gentle. He shakes his head from side to side before eventually nodding it. Madge, as well as what had happened with Prim, as _well _as seeing all the bodies and ruined houses… he couldn't go back there. "Madge is alive," she repeats again, and Gale nods. "And you had a thing with her. God, I totally knew it too!"

"Catnip I really don't want to be having this conversation," Gale groans, dropping his head into his hands. "We kissed, that was it."

"Was it… nice?" she can't even get the words out without bursting into a fit of laughter.

"Katniss!"

"Sorry!" she throws her hands up. "Sorry! It's just, you and Madge…" she shakes her head. "Sweet God." There's a pause as she rubs her forehead with a smirk.

"Katniss?" a voice calls from behind her. "Are you okay?" Gale groans again as he realizes it's Mellark.

"Fine," she calls back, "just talking to Gale!" Moments later a squeak of a door is heard and then Mellark stumbles into the camera as well.

"Morning," he holds a mug up to Gale with a cheery smile. Always so damn happy. "How's Luto?"

"Fine," Gale says back. "Still night, actually," he changes his gaze to Katniss who shrugs innocently. No matter how often he sees the two together, Gale can't get used to it. They're not even married yet, might as well be though. They live together and everything, attached at the hip. It's rare to go through a call with Katniss without seeing Mellark too.

Katniss takes the mug from his hands and sips once before handing it back to him. "You'll tell me when you find her, yeah?"

"Find who?" Peeta sits in the chair next to her.

"Madge," Katniss tells him. "Get this, she's actually alive."

"No kidding,"

"Seriously."

"Okay, I'm going back to bed," Gale grunts, leaning forward to press the end call button.

"Yeah, she and Gale had a _thing_," Katniss nearly bursts into laugher all again.

"Good_night_," Gale mutters.

"A _thing_?" Mellark's just as bad as Katniss, a grin spreading across his face. "You've gotta be kidding me…" and then Gale presses the button with a roll to his eyes, collapsing backwards on the chair. He looks toward the clock and realizes he still has a few hours to sleep before he actually _has_ to get up. Slowly, he pulls the door open and tiptoes back across his snoring friends, slipping back into his cold bed. Sleep comes easy, maybe they'll find something in the morning.

* * *

The sun finally peaks through the windows and Gale's reluctant to get out of bed. He wants to dream again like he had after his chat with Katniss instead of the nightmares that usually suffocated him. A dream. A dream in which he was chasing Madge in a field of wheat and then when he caught up to her she smiles, placing both of her hands on his cheeks. She leaned in like she was going to kiss him but then started running again, and then he'd chase her until she let him catch up, and the process kept repeating. So close, and yes so damn far.

The smell of something frying was enough to get him out of bed, his stomach rumbling for more of Nena's delicious cooking. He stumbles into the kitchen, squinting into the bright lights, and watching as Amicus and Nena separate instantly, Nena staying at her place by the oven while Am rushes to the table, sitting down quickly. "Morning," Gale says slowly.

"Hm? Oh, morning," Amicus acts as though he hadn't seen him. Typical. Gale isn't a master of relationships, obviously, but he can tell a budding one when he sees it. "How'd you sleep?"

"Fine," he plops into the seat across from his friend and studies him. "You?"

"Great, I slept great,"

"Great," Gale repeats, narrowing his gaze. Amicus smirks and crosses his arm. "I hear you like to sing Panem's national anthem."

"You talked to Katniss?" he raises his eyebrows.

"Yeah, and so did you," Gale shoots back as Nena lowers a plate in front of him. "God bless you," Gale looks up at her with a grateful smile. She smiles back and he watches as she looks toward Am, a sparkle in her eyes. "We're landing at Center 21 today," Gale says slowly. "Just so you know."

"Noted," Nena says, although he was talking to Am. His two friends keep glancing at each other when they think the other isn't looking. Gale watches with a smirk on his face and an ache in his stomach. Must be nice.

About an hour later the hovercraft lands and Team Find People emerges from their dark ship into another humid section of land. This place is lacking in trees, nothing like Center 12. Nena wrinkles her nose and crosses her arms angrily. This place is poor, and very, very crowded.

"They can't all be gems," Amicus whispers to her as they make their way into the bustling help center. The floor is lined with dark and olive skinned children, waiting along the walls. Adults scramble about the center and talk rapidly with the people behind the desks. "Sheesh, why is this place so…" Amicus trails off as someone knocks his shoulder and he stumbles backwards. "Bad?"

"The trees were cut down and they haven't gotten around to planting them again," Nena tells him. Great, another hippie. Gale is living with two hippies. "That's the first step in the restoration project because it provides families with jobs," someone pushes into her and Gale grabs her wrist before she falls. "After the jobs comes a better economy, animals come back for hunting, trade is established…"

"You sure know a lot about that," Gale mutters, trying to maintain his place in line.

"Well Center 12 was like that," she says. "We were basically finished with our job."

"Which is why no one was there," Amicus notes, finally understanding. "I get it." She nods and reaches into her pocket, pulling out the picture she had kept in the frame of Madge.

"Here," she hands it to Gale. "You wait here and talk to these people. When you ask for Madge also ask for Mimi. Mimi Folia." Amicus bows his head, taking in her instruction. "If you don't get a response, then show them the picture. Remember, this place is a lot more crowded than my Center so don't expect results with the first person. Try two or three before you start getting irritated."

"Wait," Amicus grabs her arm, "where're you going?"

"There's something I have to do," is all she says, and then she pushes her way through the crowd. Am looks back toward Gale who simply shrugs, knowing that sometimes people have to get away. Nena, however, probably actually _did_ have something important to do. Maybe call Center 12 and tell them that she left, considering she picked up without a moment's notice. She might've even been an important figure there, maybe she knows people here.

Finally Gale and Amicus make their way to the front of a counter. The woman on the other side is older, graying hair tied in a sloppy bun on the top of her head. Bags hang under her eyes and she smiles tiredly at them. "Hello boys," her voice is aged, "how may I help you?"

Amicus, God bless his soul, steps forward and smiles politely. "Hello ma'am, my names Am and this is Gale. We were wondering if you could check your database, maybe scan and see if you had someone at this center? You see, we're looking for someone."

"Ooh, how lovely, something easy," she clicks a few buttons and taps on the screen. At least here the technology is more improved than Nena's center. Gale was beginning to think Panem really was overdeveloped. "Name?"

"Madge Undersee," Amicus says. "U-N-D-E… oh," his face falls as the _no results _screen flashes. "What about Mimi Folia?" Again the woman starts to type, "F-O-L, oh." Am scratches his forehead and the woman frowns. "Oh, I know!" he takes the pictures from Gale and places them down. "Do you know this girl?" Amicus practically bounces on his toes as the woman takes the photos into her hands and studies them carefully. His bouncing, however, comes to an end, when she shakes her head.

"I'm afraid not," she says weakly. "I'm sorry, boys."

"It's alright ma'am," Gale says back as cheerfully as he can manage. Remember what Nena said, talk to a few people. "Thank you though." He wipes the sweat off his forehead with the back of his arm. The doors in the Center are constantly opening and closing which allows for a steady stream of the warm air outside to flow in. Mix that with a batch of sweaty energetic people who are always talking, Gale hates the heat.

"Do ask around, though," she says, handing the pictures back. "There aren't many girls that look like that who could walk in here without being remembered. If she was here then someone'll know her."

"Thank you," Gale says again, stepping out of line as the people behind them push them sideways. The people in this Center obviously don't have time to waste away. "Next line?"

"Next line," Amicus nods, looking over the heads of the people who scurry around them and trying to find Nena. And so they repeat the process, being pushed and shoved until they reach the front, asking the same simple questions. Once, twice, three times, Gale's allowed to get irritated now. And irritated he is, storming out of the Help Center and leaning against the building outside. The heat smothers him and he groans, dropping his head in his hands. The outside isn't much better than inside. The Center door glides open and he turns, expecting to see Amicus lumbering after him, but it's not him. Instead a man he had never seen walks out, looks at him, and then keeps walking. The next seven times the door slides open he doesn't turn to look. He lets the heat absorb him.

"Want a drink?" a voice offers, sliding down next to him. "You look stressed."

"Long day," Gale says, accepting the bottle. "And I hate the heat."

The voice belongs to a man about his age. Gale sniffs the bottle and then takes a swig, smiling at the familiar taste of white liquor. At this point he doesn't even care if it's drugged. "Name's Mica," he tells Gale. "Just lost my job."

"Sucks," Gale says, handing the bottle back. "Gale. I'm looking for someone I can't find."

"Sucks," Mica replies. Gale snorts and rests his head back on the wall. "Been searching awhile?" Gale shrugs, waiting a moment to see if his head starts to feel fuzzy. Then he laughs because why would someone from Luto be drugging him? They wouldn't, it's his paranoid training. And Mica isn't drugging him, just looking to talk considering he lost his job. "What's she like?"

"Couldn't even tell ya," Gale mutters. "I don't even know."

Mica nods and takes a swig of the drink before passing it back. There had always been stories of Luto being filled with the most kindhearted people, but Gale hadn't believed them. After Nena, the people who so kindly told him they couldn't identify the pictures, and Mica, he's starting to change his mind. "Tricky."

"I used to think I knew her. Quiet, calm, stick up her ass." Mica chuckles. "But now I'm not so sure. She seems different. Determined. Loud." Gale reaches in his pocket and extracts the picture, handing it to him. "I can't stop thinking about her."

Gale hands the bottle back after taking a sip and Mica takes it slowly. "You too?" he laughs, studying the photo. "Damn, it's like everyone I know is looking for Mara."

"Mara?" Gale snaps his head and cranes his head to make sure he passed him the right picture.

"Mara," Mica waves the photo in his hand. "I mean I don't blame you, she did kind of disappear in the middle of the night."

"Mara," Gale repeats, taking the photo gently back into his hand. "Are you sure?"

"Mara Tomasi," he nods. "Unmistakable. She was here helping at the orphanage," Mica points toward a building off in the distance. "Here for a few weeks. Not normal that we get blondes," he laughs. "Really sweet, really wanted to help. Only spoke to her a few times but everyone liked her."

"Mara," Gale says again.

"Yeah!" he looks over Gale's shoulder. "Plays the piano? Lived in Panem? Real distinct attitude?"

"That's her!" Gale nearly shouts. "When did she leave? Where did she go?"

"Whoa, slow down," Mica rubs his temple. "If you want answers you'd better check with Pac." Again, he gestures toward the orphanage. "He and Mara were pretty close, I'd say. If anyone knew where she went it'd be him."

"Gale?" Nena's voice suddenly calls. "Damnit, Am, where'd he… oh," she sees him by the entrance. "I heard you didn't find anything." Her eyes flicker to Mica who sips at his bottle lifelessly but then back to Gale. "We can try again tomorrow, yeah?"

Gale shakes his head, forcing himself to his feet. "No, we can try right now." He looks down at Mica, fiddles around with something in his pocket, and hands him a card. "Hey, you want a job? Give them a call, they'll hook you up. Even here." Mica raises an eyebrow but takes it from him slowly. "Thank you. Thank so much," and then his feet are carrying him in the direction of the building.

"No, thank you!" Mica calls back.

"Team Find People?" Amicus asks, quick on his heel.

Gale grins and nods, "Team Find People."

"And who is it we're looking for now?" Nena groans, trying to keep up with the sprinting men.

"Pac," Gale tells them.

"Pac? Madge named herself Pac?" Nena throws her hands in the air. "She doesn't make any sense!"

"No!" Gale laughs as the orphanage gets closer and he slows his pace. "She named herself _Mara_, but _Pac_ was friends with her! Like you." He pauses and stops outside the door. "She could've been here days ago. Maybe weeks." Amicus claps his hand on Gale's back with a grin. "We're gonna find her."

"Hell yeah we are," Am smirks. "We're Team Find People."

* * *

_A/N: Sorry it's been a few days! I have so many fics and I love them all and ugh you're just all patient and wonderful. With each chapter they get closer to Madge/Mimi/Mara who is spinning a wonderful web of lies for them to follow. Don't worry, they'll find her soon enough. _


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Kids say the darndest things.**

* * *

The three press their way into the orphanage and sigh at the air that dances around them. Cold, it gives Gale much needed goosebumps. It gives him time to breathe. He marches up to the desk with a new determination, a swelling in his stomach. He could be so close. Amicus dings the bell on the desk more times than needed, a few young children peer down the staircase at them. Nena waves at them but they rush back upstairs, yelling something in a different language. Nena smirks as if she understands them. In fact, she probably does.

"Looking to adopt?" a curious voice coming from the other direction causes all of them to turn. A young man, maybe younger than Gale, stands before them. He smiles and walks behind the desk, leaning over and on his elbows. The bags under his eyes prove he's tired, but he wears a bright smile that reflects his eagerness, his excitement to be working where he is.

"Maybe one day," Nena says dreamily. "I love children."

Before Amicus can add his little bit about how much _he_ loves children _too_, Gale says, "Unfortunately, that day is not today." The man laughs and straightens his posture. "Name's Gale Hawthorne," he extends his hand, the other shakes it back. "We're here on business."

"Business?" he raises his eyebrows. Nena wanders off to a bulletin board across the hall and starts reading it, Amicus, of course, follows. "And how may I help you? Name's Pac, by the way." Gale grins, just the guy he was looking for. He reaches into his pocket and extracts the pictures of Madge/Mara/Mimi and places it gently on the desk. "You too?" Pac laughs sadly, examining the pictures. "Yeah, I know Mara. What do you want to know?"

"When was she here last?" Gale asks quickly. His heart is pounding in his chest. Every time he meets someone that knows Madge it's like another reminder that she really is alive, she really is out there. And he's getting closer.

"Two weeks? Three?" Pac frowns and runs his hands through his sloppy black hair. "Stopped counting once I realized she wasn't coming back." Gale scowls, wondering if the two were in a relationship of sorts. "She was like my older sister," he studies the picture. "And one night she just up and left. Her room's still the same and everything, still has clothes in the drawer." After a moment the boy stops rambling and looks toward Gale. "Who're you again?"

Gale laughs, "I'm just looking for an old friend." Something in the back of Gale's head scolds him, are they more than friends? Were they? His stomach flips as he thinks about that night so many years ago, the way her hair felt in his hands, her skin under his touch…

"Mara never talked about her old life, not really," he tells Gale, leading him away from the front desk. "How do I know you're not obsessively stalking her?"

"If I was obsessively stalking her I wouldn't have let her out of my sight in the first place," Gale tells him with a smirk. Pac lets out a genuine laugh and continues up the stairs. "Hey, how old are you?"

"Twenty one," he says. "My family owned this orphanage but they passed in the great fire a few years ago. I was seventeen then."

"Sorry for your loss," Gale spits out the apology that's been drilled into his brain from training. "Where's M," he catches himself, "Mara, come into play?"

"I know her names Madge," Pac rolls his eyes and stops outside a door. "She let it slip one night. Right before she left. I just… she's always been Mara to me. You can call her Madge." Pac pushes the door open and stumbles in. "I think that's why she left, you know, let too much slip. She was drinking," he admits with a smirk. "She got all giggly when she drank, told lots of secret. Said her name was Madge, that she was running from someone." He pauses and turns to Gale. "Not you, right?"

"I doubt she even knows I'm looking," he mutters. Gale's eyes flicker to the map on the wall, pins in multiple places across Luto. "What's that?" he points, striding across the room to get a closer view.

"Not sure," Pac admits. "She insisted on putting it up though, not sure why she left it. In fact, she left mostly everything." He pulls out a drawer and shows Gale that it's still stuffed with clothes. "I mean, we gave her these things but they were hers." Gale sits on his bed and places his head in his hands, processing everything. Pac takes a moment, and then sits too.

"You know, you people really are the friendliest on the planet."

"Not only that but _I_ work an orphanage," he can hear Pac smile. "Double brownie points." Gale laughs, but then catches it. "Don't worry, we were only friends. Like I said, she was like my older sister. That's why it killed me when she just left." It's as if Pac's reading his thoughts, Gale not wanting to talk to him if they had been together. The thought of Madge with someone else made his stomach angry, his head pound. He knew Madge wasn't his or anything like that, but he didn't exactly want her to be anyone else's. Not yet. A few people peer into the room and Pac smiles, "You can come in, Janie. Loo, too." The two scurry into the room and sit at the foot of Gale. "Can you say hello?" Instead of speaking with their voices, they wave. Gale's guessing the girl, Janie, is about six. Her hair flails in all different directions as if she took a shower at night and slept with wet hair. Loo's would be about five, short hair messy on the top of his head as well. "This is Mr. Gale."

"Just Gale," he corrects.

"Hi Mr. Gale," the little girl says. Gale looks up from his hands and smiles, damn kids always get to him. "Were you the boy Ms. Mara always spoked about?" Her voice reminds him of Posy, and part of his stomach clenches. He should really call home. Posy isn't this little anymore, but she's still his baby sister. Maybe later.

"I, uh," Gale shrugs, "I don't know. What'd she say about him?"

The little boy giggles, "That he was tall and angry. You're tall and look angry."

Gale laughs, "Maybe. I don't know." His heart wishes it was him, his brain tells him it wasn't. He can't imagine Madge every speaking about him. If she wanted to be with him she would've came back, wouldn't have left him waiting. But then again, if it was too hard for her… his head hurt. He just wanted to find her. He just wanted answers from her, not from two little kids who might not even be telling the truth.

"That was just a story, Loo," Pac tells the kids. "She talked about a prince in a far off land, she liked telling stories," he adds to Gale. "Good at it too. She liked kids. Good with em. So how'd you know her?"

"Story time?" Janie taps Pac's foot. He looks toward Gale, who shrugs. Janie grins. "Pac's a bad story teller," she tells Gale. "Ms. Mara was a very good story teller and if she liked you then you must be too. Ms. Mara liked people with stories."

"Okay," Gale starts. "I uh, me and Ms. Mara, well we grew up together I guess." Gale's a bad story teller too. He snickers, no wonder she left. "I sold her strawberries a lot of the time."

"Ms. Mara loved strawberries!" Loo cuts in. "She always bought them at the store every single day!"

"How long was she here for?" Gale turns to Pac, who smiles down at the children like they're his own. Like he's an older brother. He can see why family's so important to them here.

"Oh, uh, two months? I think?" So close, and yet so far. "The story, please." Gale laughs and shakes his head.

"Right, well I sold her strawberries a lot and we became friends. We talked all the time, she even got me to laugh sometimes." The kids gasp as if they hadn't heard him laugh mere seconds ago. As if he really was an angry monster. "She always got under my skin, er, made me really angry. But she thought it was funny." Janie giggles and tugs on her hair. "And then she did something really nice for me one day, she got me a very special medicine."

"What kind of medicine?" Loo asks.

"It stopped me from hurting. I had gotten in trouble and I had a lot of cuts on my back," Gale says weakly. "And she brought me medicine that made me feel all better." The whipping wasn't something Gale liked to talk about, it made his stomach knot and his throat dry.

"That's like in her story!" Janie cuts in. "Right, Pac?" After a moment, Pac nods. "The princess made the prince fall in love with her because she saved his life. Go on, Mr. Gale!" Gale tries pushing the lump out of his throat, but after Janie's comment it's a bit difficult.

"Well, I… I got mad at her after that. I told her she only did it because she had more money than me, that she didn't have to," he swallows sharply and drops his gaze. She had only done it because he had been in so much pain. Gale couldn't even figure out why he had been so mad at her. He saved her life and all he wanted to do was make her go away. "I yelled at her," he says weakly. "I told her I never wanted to see her again."

Janie frowns, "That's not very nice."

"I know," Gale frowns too. Pac watches with bright eyes. "I didn't know how rude it was then, though. I was just being stupid." Very, very, stupid. If he could take it back, he would. But he can't.

"Obviously," Loo crosses his arms.

"Anyway," Gale changes the subject, "one day she walked up to me while I was with friends and she kissed me."

"Ewww!" the two children chorus together. "Cooties!" Janie adds.

"Ew, cooties, I know," Gale smirks. "But that was then I realize how stupid I had always been. You see, I liked Ms. Mara a lot. A lot more than I ever let on." The kids were practically bouncing on their toes. "But then she left," Gale's voice gives out a bit and he waits a second. "She kissed me to say goodbye. And for awhile I thought she had died, but I found out she was still alive. I knew I had to find her."

"Mr. Gale, are you in love with Ms. Mara?" Loo asks with a grin.

There's a pause, "I don't know, Loo. Maybe." He sure as hell hadn't been before this stupid journey, but the more he learns about her, the closer he gets to Madge, the more he thinks he might be. The adventures, the little stories about her life. It's impossible to not watch someone from afar and not feel anything for them. "I just really want to find her."

"Just looking for an old friend?" Pac asks quietly with a smile. "Nice try." Gale shrugs, feeling his cheeks flush, and leans backwards. "True story?" Gale nods, and Pac's smile brightens. "You're a good man, Gale Hawthorne. I think if she knew you were looking she wouldn't keep moving." Again, Gale shrugs. Pac turns around and looks toward the map. "I think this is all the places she'd been," he tells Gale. "So you can cross all them off your list. I know she wanted to go to Insula. There's a few centers on near the beach there."

"What makes you say that?" Gale asks, turning.

"These pins are green," he points to the ones near Insula. "All the others are red." Gale associates the red with a _don't go back_. Green as a _move forward_. He scanned the map until he found where Center 12 was, the Center where they picked up Nena, and found a red pin in it. His heart gave a lurch.

A few moments later, Nena and Amicus stumble into the room. "There you two are," Nena scampers in happily. "This Mimi's room?"

"Ms. Mara's," Janie corrects.

"Madge's," Amicus grins. "This girl seriously sounds like a lot of fun, going around and changing her name. Maybe I'll try that one day. Just skip from town to town and totally change my identity,"

"Am," Nena cuts him off by grabbing his arm lightly. Amicus looks down at the gesture and his cheeks go pink. Nena pretends not to notice. Gale can't help but smile at the fact that Nena doesn't want Amicus going off and skipping out on them. "What'd you find out?"

"Mr. Gale's in love with Ms. Mara," Loo giggles, and Janie presses a hand over his mouth.

"I could've told you that," Amicus rolls his eyes.

* * *

The kids have gone to sleep, Nena and Amicus have wandered off _again_, and Gale and Pac sit in the living room. "I really hope you find her," Pac says. "She did a lot for this place. Gave the kids a lot of hope." There's a pause and he adds, "Gave _me_ a lot of hope. I never had any siblings, just the kids from the orphanage that I grew up with. They all moved off, traveled on, got real jobs." He frowns. "Mara, er, Madge came,"

"You can call her Mara," Gale says gently.

"Well, she came and wanted to work. I told her I couldn't pay her and she didn't really care. She just wanted a place to stay, wanted to help. I don't know, she's really special." Gale nods and rubs at his face. "She was literally exactly like an older sister would be, she'd try to get me to go on dates with girls, she'd always make sure I went to bed on time. I kept saying, 'Mara, I'm twenty one for christssake,' and she'd just say back, 'You're still a growing boy!'" Pac sighs and leans back in his chair. "And then she just up and left."

"She does that a lot, apparently," Gale grumbles.

"You think she's okay?"

Gale laughs, "Probably." There's another pause in the conversation. "I'd ask you to come and look with us if you didn't have the orphanage."

Pac laughs too, then. "I wouldn't be able to just up and leave. I'm not like her, I like where I am. I'm not looking for an adventure, I've got plenty right here." Gale smiles, glancing around the room where toys are littered and finger painted pictures are hung upon the walls.

"Do you resent her? For leaving?"

"Nah," Pac shakes his head. "Her dreams were too big for this place. I get that." Gale studies the boy, they really were close. He can practically see Madge sitting in the chair Gale's in instead, the two laughing about something Loo or Janie had done earlier in the day, or one of the other kids from the orphanage. "She's a great girl."

"She's so different from when I knew her," Gale says weakly. "Sometimes I'm scared…" he trails off, but Pac raises his eyebrows. What the hell, he'll just tell him. "Sometimes I'm scared that she forgot all about us, me, I don't know." Pac smirks. "Aw, don't look at me like that."

"You really like her," he notes.

"I don't know her anymore. I might just like the idea of her, I don't know."

"No, no you like her." Pac laughs, "Everyone does. You can't help but not. Mara's like this angel, she just comes out of nowhere and fixes things for everyone. And she's gentle and sweet and determined, like a perfect mix of greatness." Gale can't help but agree. Everything he's heard about Madge has been great, like she's trying to make a difference in the world, make it a better place. "I hope you find her."

"Me too, man," he groans. "I doubt she'll want anything to do with me, I mean she really hated me."

"You said she kissed you," Pac notes with a smirk.

"Okay, before that she really hated me. It felt like, anyway. I mean, I'm not the greatest guy, I don't think. I've been through war, still going through war, a lot's changed. I'm different."

"So is she."

"What's with you Luto people always being so damn inspiring and optimistic?" Gale grumbles under his breath. "No one wants anything to do with me," he adds. "She'll just move on and…"

"If you talk like that she will, but what if she doesn't?" Gale fiddles with the hem of his shirt and looks toward his boots. "Listen, if anyone was willing to travel half the world just to find me I think I'd give them a chance. Wouldn't you?"

"Undersee's different," Gale shakes his head. "I don't know. I don't see why she'd…" he trails off. He's not even sure what he wants. A relationship? Just to see her again? He just has to find her, he has to find her and then everything else will fall into place. It has to. "I'm not good enough for someone like her."

"Matter of perspective," Pac tells him. "You leaving again tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Gale nods. "I gotta find her."

Pac smiles, "Send her our love, alright? All of us, the kids and everything. I really miss her. Tell her to write."

"I'll add you to the list," Gale smirks, and then sighs, rubbing his face. All he wants to do is find her, to stop having nightmares, to just see her once. That's all he needs. But does he want more? He can't even tell anymore. "What if what you said is true, that I like her, and then she just leaves again? I mean she's always leaving and I…"

"Hey, if it's mean to be then it'll happen. If you really like her then make sure she knows, tell her all you went through. She's a reasonable person. I'm sure she has a reason for always leaving." Gale nods, of course she has a reason for leaving. But what is it?

* * *

_A/N: I'm predicting maybe two or three more chapters until Gale finds her. I mean, there has to be that awkward moment when Gale runs into the same person Madge is running from... someone named Alend. Does he ring a bell? He should. Enjoy ~_


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Not the only one looking.**

* * *

"I'm tired of this," Nena's voice carries through the walls. Gale was sure she thought he had been sleeping, but he wasn't. He had another nightmare. "He's dragging us off to Insula while she could still be in Luto! He doesn't have a solid lead,"

"Nena," Amicus says back tiredly. "He's trying his hardest. He wants to find her just as much as you do." Even with the door only cracked and the couple out of view, Gale could tell they were sitting close on the couch. "And I'd say Pac gave us a great lead with that map."

"Maybe," she mumbles in response. "But there are plenty of centers in Luto and,"

"Nena," Amicus says again. "You knew what you were signing up for when you boarded the hovercraft." There's a pause and Gale rolls in bed, facing the wall. "Sometimes I think he's just blindly reaching for things too, but he's my best friend and I trust him…" Gale rubs at his face, squeezing his eyes shut. Not even his best friend thinks he's making sense by changing the course all the way to Insula. It made sense in his head, he just wanted to skip Luto and find her. Find Madge.

In the morning he woke up to the obnoxious ringing of the telephone. Gale rushed out of his room, noting the cuddling Amicus and Nena on the couch, and slammed the pilot door shut not caring if he woke them. He answered it quickly and found the face of three smiling siblings. "Gale!" Posy called out.

"Hey Pose," Gale grinned, leaning back in the pilot's seat and rubbing at his eyes. "I guess you guys got my message?"

Rory nods, "Mom said we should call." Gale sent to his family a few nights ago, telling them he wanted to talk to them, that they should call between the hours of this and that. He hadn't expected to be on his way to Insula, totally screwing up the entire time zone ordeal. Gale studied his siblings with a smile, it had been so long since he'd seen then. Posy with her long trailing her, much like his mothers. Vick in that lanky preteen stage. Rory looking like a solider, a grown man, much as Gale had when he was 18. "What's up?"

"Guess where I am?" he says back.

"A hovercraft?" Vick answers with a smirk.

"Don't be smart," Gale laughs, as well as the other siblings. "I'm on my way to Insula."

Posy's eyes widen, "No way! I've always _wanted_ to go to Insula!" She's still young, only 10 years old, but his mom had told him how she aspired to travel the world. She told him that Posy had maps of every country hanging around her room. Much like Madge, there were pins all over them. Places she had to go, places she wanted to visit. "Take me with you!"

"Maybe next time, Posy," Gale smiles, still studying his family. Months, maybe a year since he had last seen them. Sure he talked to them over the phone but that wasn't always a video chat. "How've you guys been?"

"You should come home," Rory says, crossing his arms limply. "Mom misses you, so do we."

"Yeah," Vick nods, "at least come visit!"

"I think I will," Gale tells them. "Once I'm done with this mission though." He talks to them like they're still children, mostly he's aimed at Posy right now. "Kinda dangerous."

"What is it?" Rory leans forward, more intrigued than the little sister. He had wanted to join the army and move to District 2 with Gale but their mother forbade it. Rory wasn't even good with blood, his face would turn pale and he's get queasy. "Are you assassinating people? Bombing villages?"

"What kind of monster do you think I am?" Gale smirks, leaning back and crossing his arms. "I'm tracking someone down." Rory scoffs and crosses his arm too. Apparently his older brother isn't cool enough for him anymore. "A girl. You remember Madge Undersee?"

"You used to mumble her name in your sleep," Rory says, Vick nodding enthusiastically next to him. "She was the mayor's daughter, right?" Gale nods. "Thought she died."

"Yeah, well she's in Insula."

"You're tracking Ms. Madge?" Posy asks with wide eyes. Gale nods. "She had yellow hair, right?" Gale smiles and nods again. "Why?"

"Because your brother," the voice of Hazelle Hawthorne causes all the children to turn, "is in love with her." Her aged face comes into view, a soft smile despite the worry in her eyes. "Hi sweetie."

"Hey, Ma. I'm not in love with her." Posy giggles as Hazelle takes a seat behind her. "I'm not!"

"Sure, dear, you're just traveling across the planet to see an old friend for a drink," she snorts into her hand. "Nice try." The more people say it out loud the stranger the idea is to him. The fact that he could be in love with a girl he hasn't seen in five years. It makes him nervous, it makes him scared.

"Are you really?" Vick asks, widening his eyes and making a face like he's about to throw up.

"No," Rory shakes his head. "Gale doesn't fall in love with people."

"_I_ think it's romantic," Posy gushes, her cheeks tinkling with pink. "Especially if it's Ms. Madge. She's so pretty. You'll come visit when you find her? Bring her too?"

"Maybe," Gale forces out. If she'll go with him. He'd love to get Madge and Posy in the same room, talking about this country and that Center, they could go for days. Madge would like Posy, he thinks. "We'll see."

* * *

Gale makes breakfast for himself, not looking at Nena or Amicus as they make landing plans for Center 11B in Insula. He's a little angry about their comments last night. Amicus tries to meet his eyes but every time he does Gale looks away. Once they've landed the three make their way to the center, Nena gasping at the climate of the place. It's dry, but not humid. A bit overcast but right on the beach. Nena had never been on the beach before. They all decide to head to the shore for a few minutes before starting their search, even Gale can't resist the salty air.

Nena runs forward desperate to feel the ocean between her toes but Gale and Amicus walk slower. "You heard her last night didn't you," he says, crossing his arms to shield from the wind that whips around them.

"Her?" Gale laughs dryly, "Heard you both."

"Well what do you want us to do, Gale," Amicus mutters. "You're calling all the shots, not us."

"You're not offering any suggestions," Gale bites back. "If you have some valuable insight that you're holding back then please, feel free to share it with me!" He pauses and turns to Amicus, raising his eyebrows. "Well?"

"Gale I'm worried about you," he finally says. The boy from the Seam furrows his brows and drops his arms to his side. "I just think that when it comes to Madge that you're rushing and maybe you need to take more time…"

"That has nothing to do with what I said," he snaps. The two turn as Nena shrieks, finally hitting the water and shivering in the cold. "Am, what are you on about?"

"God, I see it in your eyes! You don't even know what you're doing!" Gale holds out his palms, his eyebrows shooting up his forehead as if to ask _what_. "What happens when we find her and she's married?"

"Doesn't matter,"

"Hell if it doesn't," Amicus rolls his eyes. "Or she has a kid, or she's addicting to morphling, or…"

"It doesn't matter!" Gale repeats angrily. "I just want to see her, okay? Just once, I've got to see her."

Am scoffs, "You're fooling yourself if that's all you think you want." Gale swallows tightly. "You're creating this girl inside your head who could be, who _will_ be completely different from the one you meet." Gale tightens his jaw. "You're my best friend, Gale," Amicus sighs. "I don't want you getting hurt, okay?"

"I'm not 18 anymore," Gale mutters. "And I'm not a girl. I don't need a box of tissues and a bowl of ice cream if things don't go my way." Amicus snorts and brings his hands up to his face, rubbing his eyes. "If she's married, or has kids, or any of that, I'll deal with it then, okay?" His friend nods. "I'm tired of having this conversation with people, Am. I'll deal with it then. I'm not gonna just give up this far in, I can't."

"Alright, Gale," Amicus drops his arms. "Swear to me if she turns out to be someone different you won't turn into a drunk?"

Gale snorts, "Swear."

"Good, now let's go throw Nena in the waves," he grins, his feet carrying him off toward the ocean.

* * *

"Mimi Folia?"

"No."

"Mara Tomasi?"

"No."

No, no, no, no, no. No after no after no. Even Nena is threatening to rip her hair out. "I told you!" she hisses at the boys. "I knew she wouldn't be here! I knew it and neither of you listened to me!"

"Nena," Amicus tries to calm her, but Gale lashes out next.

"You never said _anything_," Gale jabs a finger at her. "So don't go blaming this on us!"

"Us?" she laughs, throwing her hands up, "You mean you!"

"Nena," Amicus says again, already having talked to Gale. "Stop, stop this," he grabs her wrist and pulls her away, Gale leaning against the wall to take a deep breath. "Nena," he can hear Amicus talking to her. "You need to calm down, okay? Just breathe." Gale hears her gasping for breath and he turns slightly, watching Amicus wipe under her eyes. "I know you want to find her, we all do, but us fighting isn't going to help anyone."

"She left me," Nena weeps, falling onto Am's chest. "She left me in the middle of the night!"

"I know," he says calmly, stroking her hair. "It's okay." She nods and pulls him tighter, that lonely feeling aching in the bottom of Gale's stomach comes back. With the two of them preoccupied, Gale goes up to another booth.

"Hey," he leans over stressfully. "Can you help me?"

"That's my job, mate," the girl cheers back lightly. "What can I do ya for?"

"I'm looking for someone," he says weakly, his hand fumbling with the pictures in his back pocket. He slides them across to her and she looks at them, squinting her dark green eyes. "Seen her?"

"I think so, actually. Newbie, or was, anyway. Not sure if she's still here. Her name started with an M, I think."

Gale's heart races. Not sure if she's still here. She could be here. "Mimi Folia?" she shakes her head, "Mara Tosami?"

"I think it was Merci, actually." Gale raises an eyebrow. "Exactly what I said, mate! I think she shot through last week, actually." Gale nods, pretending to understand her slang. "Yeah, the more I think about it the more sure I am her name was Merci. Went my Mir, though. I think, don't trust me on that!"

"Alright, Alysia," he smiles, reading her name tag. She smiles too, he wonders if Madge would look like her if she was from Insula, too. She's got bright blonde hair much as Madge, although her skin's tanner, darker than Gale remembered Madge's to be. Her eyes are green, too, not blue like Madge's were. Nose is a bit off as well, and her forehead's too big. "Can you search in your lovely computer, perhaps?"

"Oh, of course," she blinks, her cheeks tingeing pink. "Mimi Folia? Last seen over in Luto," she tells him. "Same with Mara. You sure you're looking for the right girl?"

Gale laughs, "I have no idea what I'm looking for anymore. Try Madge. Madge Undersee." The girl pauses, her fingers hovering over the keys. "What is it?"

"I just heard that name," she taps her chin. "Where did I just hear that name?" Gale raises his eyes and leans closer to her. "Oh, I know! Some boy rocked up a few hours ago, yabbering away about her! Ooh, what was his name?" her eyebrows knit. "I don't think he told me, actually. Said he was looking for a Madge, though! I bet he's still in town."

"That so?" Gale frowned, wondering who else would be looking for her. Maybe the person she was actually running for. "When'd he leave her?"

"Just a bit. Said he was heading for the pub, wanted to get as full as a goog, that one." Right.

"Thanks, Alysia," he grins. "You're great, thank you."

"Course. Never learned your name," she says back.

"Gale," he calls over his shoulder, his feet already carrying him to the door. "Gale Hawthorne." He dips back to Am and Nena. "Guys," he calls, "come on! We're going to the pub!" Am's eyes light up and Nena smiles lightly, following as they scamper out of the Welcome Building.

* * *

"What do you mean someone else was looking for her?" Nena frowns, sipping from the glass of beer in her hands. "She doesn't make any sense. And Merci? What is she now, a nun?" Amicus snorts and tips the head of his beer bottle into his mouth. "This is getting so frustrating."

"Tell me about it," Gale mutters, sliding the shot glass back toward the bartender. "Give me another." The man on the other side raises his eyebrows but fills the small cup quickly. It'll be his fourth shot. "I need to get wasted," Gale groans. "I swear to God if we don't find Madge soon I'm going to go crazy."

"You say Madge?" a man down the bar inquires.

"That's our business," Amicus shoots back lightly. "Why?"

"Because I'm looking for her too," he tells them, narrowing his eyes. "Madge Undersee?" Gale takes his shot and cringes, slamming it back on the bar and pushing it toward the bartender again.

"What of her?" Gale turns to him, considering he's the closest. "Who the hell are you?"

"I could ask the same thing," the man shoots back. Long dirty blonde hair, mostly dirty, down to his ears, pinkish skin like he forgot to put on suntan lotion.

"Well good thing I asked first," Gale cheers sarcastically. Nena snorts.

"Alend," the man says. "Alend Knupp. I'm her fiancé."

* * *

_A/N: I know it's a shorter one, but I had to end it like that. Sorry darlings. Thoughts? Next chapter includes more of an explanation about Alend (who you should remember from chapter 4 & 6) as well as Alysia actually. Just a few chapters until we get to meet Madge again, hang on tight. Bear with me ~_


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: It's the alcohol.**

* * *

Gale's heart drops into his stomach. He suddenly feels like he's about to puke up all the alcohol he just consumed, it trickles up his throat and he drops his head into his hands, swallowing sharply. "Fiancé!" Nena yells, slamming her cup on the counter. Good thing she does, because Gale certainly couldn't. He's momentarily lost his voice, the ability to breathe all together. "Bull shit!"

"Okay, ex-fiancé," Alend rolls his eyes and scans his nails. "Same thing."

"That is _not_ the same thing," Amicus hisses, his hand resting on Gale's shoulder for reassurance. Right now, however, it feels suffocating, and Gale shrugs it off.

"Another," Gale mutters to the bartender, shoving the shot glass in his direction. Noticing the distress on his face the bartender doesn't hesitate, searching for the strongest liquor in the bar and pouring it into his shot glass.

"Oh, _God_!" Nena yells again, "What the _hell_ did you do to her?" Nena's glaring daggers at the guy, she forces herself out of her stool and marches over to him, jabbing her finger. "She told me about you. God, you broke her! You _ruined_ her!" More knots, Gale feels more knots. He needs to untie the knot, he needs to breathe, but he can't. It's like he fell out of a tree, like the first time he jumped out of a plane, no air in his lungs.

"No I didn't," the man snaps back. "Everything's just a big misunderstanding, that's all."

"What's a misunderstanding?" Amicus wanders over and pulls Nena away from him, forcing her behind him protectively. "What'd you do?" Amicus doesn't know Madge, nothing other than the stories everyone's shared, but he defends her.

"I don't even know who you are," Alend rolls his eyes. "Why should I tell you?"

"We're invested friends," Gale murmurs, refusing to look at the man. The bartender returns, sliding the shot glass to him. Gale takes his fifth shot. Madge was engaged. Madge was engaged to this greasy cretin two stools down. Engaged. Wedding band on her finger. Diamond and all. He wonders if it was a diamond, maybe a ruby. Perhaps it was a sapphire, blue like her eyes. The knots come back, but then again they never left. "Your turn," he spits, referring to the question Am and Nena asked. What'd he do to her?

"Use your imagination," the man smirks, dragging his fingers through his sloppy hair. "Ex fiancé for a reason, obviously. Made a mistake." The way he says it causes anger to flare in Gale's blood.

"I swear to God," Gale finally snaps, thrusting himself away from the counter and toward the stranger, his hands jabbing his shoulders backwards. "If you hurt her I'll rip your throat out."

Alend straightens himself and then pushes back, "Is that a threat?"

"It's a promise," Gale snarls, shaking off Amicus who desperately tries to pull him away. He's mumbling something about being a soldier and what a real man is and how he's so much better than this, but he's _pissed_. Gale's nearly shaking with fury.

"Look what we've got here," Alend taunts, "it appears someone's got a crush on little Madge. How cute, except I thought we were adults." He cracks his knuckles, Gale locks his jaw. "The only problem here is we can't find her. And if we could, she'd be waiting for me. Not you. She's in love with me, boy, it's why we were engaged. So why don't you pack your toys, and head on home. I'm gonna find her and fix things, and then things are going to go back to normal." Gale doesn't hesitate to rear his arm back, lurching forward and making contact with his jaw.

Alend's too drunk to dodge the hit, but not drunk enough to reciprocate it. His elbow digs into Gale's stomach, his free hand reaching up to scratch his face. "Gale!" Nena shrieks as Am jumps in, trying to pull the two away from each other. Alend rolls on top of Gale, attempting to pin his arms back, but Gale's had training. He jerks his head forward, slamming his forehead against the other's with a grunt. Alend groans in pain, rolling off to the side and holding his hand up to his nose which is now bleeding. Gale lurches forward, again and again, pounding his fist into Alend's gut, his chest, his nose.

"Enough!" Amicus shouts, jerking Gale backwards by his shoulders and tossing him on the floor. "Gale, pull yourself together!" Gale flexes his hand, blood dripping down his knuckles. The stranger's blood mixing with his own.

"Get out," the bartender snarls, all pity for this man gone once fists started flying. "Both of you. Out."

"His fault," Alend chokes out, "not mine."

"Fine, then you can stay," the man behind the counter gestures to the bleeding imbecile on the floor. "But if you get blood on the stools you're cleaning it up." Gale pushes himself off the floor and charges for the exit.

"Gale," Nena rushes after him.

"No," he turns to her. "Stay. Find out as much as you can." She nods, turning to Amicus with worried eyes. "I'll see you guys later." And then he's out of the bar into the brisk air of the night. Fiancé! The thought makes him sick. Gale stumbles over to a nearby tree and rests against it to catch his breath. Fiancé, Madge had a fiancé. Someone else held her in their arms, pressed their lips against hers, felt her shiver beneath them, her collarbone exposed, her blonde hair around their fingers. Selfish, Gale tells himself to stop being so selfish. The more he thinks about it though, the angrier he gets. A rage bubbling up inside him takes over his entire body and he lashes out, punching the tree in front of him as hard as he can.

"Gale? Gale Hawthorne?" Gale drops his fist and raises his eyes, meeting the dark green ones of Alysia from the Welcome Building. "Are you okay?"

"Alysia," he exhales, forcing a smile on his face. "What're you doing here?"

"Well you ran out of the building so quickly I didn't get a chance to give you my number," she smiles weakly, nervously. Gale lets out a chuckle, straightening his posture. "Oi! What happened to your face!" Alysia rushes forward and wipes his cheek. "Did you get so rotten you got in a bar fight!"

"If rotten means drunk, then," he swallows slowly. "I guess so, yeah. Hell, Veto's gonna murder me." He rakes his fingers through his hair. Probation, probably. That's what'll happen to Gale. Probation, maybe dismissal. Again, he feels like he's going to puke. He wasn't on duty, he won't be held accountable. Maybe no one'll tell Veto anyways, but that's a lie. Amicus'll say something, he's honest like that.

"You're bloody bleeding!" she scolds him. "Here, come back to my place and I'll get you cleaned up, yeah?"

"I don't know," he's skeptical. Gale barely knows the girl, but he's tired and the alcohol is amplifying his senses. "I was just gonna go to my hovercraft."

"I'm not asking you to marry me, mate," she jeers lightly. Gale smirks. "Just let me clean you up, yeah?" And against his better judgment, he goes with her.

* * *

"There you are," she wipes his cheek with a disinfectant wipe. "All cleaned up." He closes his eyes as her fingers brush against his skin. He could almost pretend she was Madge, blonde hair, gentle touches. "Want something to drink, love?"

"Anything with alcohol in it," he nods as she rushes off to the kitchen, popping the cork of a bottle of champagne. Alysia pours him a glass and he drinks and she drinks and they both drink until the bottle is empty. He doesn't want to think about Alend, he doesn't want to think about what he did to Madge, how he hurt her, how she fell in love with him. Gale doesn't want to think about anything. And eventually, he and the quirky blonde across from him are bent in hysterics, laughing at nothing because neither of them can walk three feet without stumbling. Because they're thinking about nothing. They're not thinking at all.

Gale goes to get more from another bottle but slips, landing on Alysia on the couch. She giggles and runs her fingers through his hair. "Watch your step," she laughs.

"You were in my way," he teases back. She grins, pulling herself up by his shoulders.

"Mmm," she mews as her body arches closer to his. "You're cute, you know."

"I know," Gale laughs back, obviously affected by the alcohol. And then he leans down to kiss her, his lips frantically sucking against hers. It was like she planned it, the cut, the drinking, Alysia was ready for his kiss. Her hand reaches up to cup his face, the other sliding under his shirt. She moaned into his mouth, shivers sparking down his spine. His hand reaches up and tangles in her golden blonde hair, breathing in her scent of ocean and sun.

"Gale," she whimpers, his body rolling to hover above hers. He leans down, nipping against her neck. Alysia's body shudders as his tongue strays across her collarbone. Her fingers pulled at the hem of his shirt, slowly hiking it over his head. Again their lips were on each others, needy impatient, overwhelmed with the feeling of loneliness Gale doesn't hesitate to slip her shirt off either. His lips trail down her chest, across her stomach. She wraps her legs around him and mumbling something about the bedroom. In one swift motion he raises himself from the couch, her body pressed against his. Gale's eyes opened for a moment and all he can register is the blonde hair, the soft touch of her tiny fingers raking across his chest. Her lips suckle against his neck as they bounded in the room, the feel of her silk bra against his body.

They collapse on the bed, his hands traveling down her sides and up in her hair and all across her in every way possible. Needy, needy, impossibly needy, Alysia's hands reach for the button of his jeans. "Wait," he pulls away as the button comes undone. "Wait."

"What?" she pants, desperate to slide his jeans off. The accent, her damn accent, this wasn't Madge, this wasn't what he wanted.

"I can't," he nudges her hands away. "No, I, I can't."

"Don't you have a franger?" she frowns. "Doesn't matter, I'm on the pill," she stretches up, arching her body against his. "Come on, Gale." He shakes his head. Wrong, wrong, this is so terribly wrong.

"I'm not a one night stand type of guy," Gale pushes her away lightly. "We're drunk, Alysia, I don't actually…" again she was craning toward him, kissing him quickly. "Alysia,"

"I'm not even in the nuddy yet," she frowns. "Come on,"

"I said no," Gale rolls off the bed. Wrong, wrong, wrong, this is wrong. "Get up, would you?" he groans, running his hands through his hair. Alysia pulls her fingers through her own hair, straightening it out over her shoulders delightfully. "I told you I was looking for someone."

"How was I supposed to know it'd be your lover?" she pouts, but only playfully. "People'd kill to be in your position Mr. Hawthorne." He glanced over, taking note of her swollen lips and small red marks down her neck. Hell, he should do it. He wants to, her thin body, anxious hands, but he won't. Lonely, that's all he is. Lonely and drunk. Empty, craving, it'd been so long. "Got a problem with having a naughty?"

"Your slang makes no sense to me," Gale smirks, dropping his hands to his sides. "I should go, I shouldn't've came."

"You knew it'd take you here though, didn't you?" she grins, her fingers lightly trailing across his arm. "I'm okay with a night."

"I'm not," Gale says back roughly. "I don't do that anymore."

"Anymore?" Alysia laughs, collapsing backwards on the bed. "Well ain't that a beaut? How many months late am I for _that_ Gale Hawthorne?"

"About two," he chuckles. Gale's hands reach up and press in his eyes as he lets out a long groan. "This is so messed up."

"It's okay to be lonely," Alysia sits back up, her hands running across the scars on his back and wrapping around his chest. Again, he nudges her off. She sighs, "I knew that girl when you first showed me pictures of her." Gale turns to look at her and squints. "I thought, great, another person who likes Mir more than me. God, there were so many. I mean she's great, don't get me wrong, but no one ever wanted me anymore."

"Alysia,"

"So I acted like I didn't know her, I thought maybe you'd like me. Obviously not."

"It's not that," Gale shakes his head. "This is too fast, too rushed. I'm too… preoccupied." She smirks. "I've been tracking her for weeks, I just want to find her. There's nothing wrong with you, you're _beautiful_ and sweet hell your accent alone is enough to get me in bed." She snorts, her hand finding his knee. "But I just can't, that's not me anymore."

"Well, I guess you'll be going then," she sighs, standing up and pulling him with her. He trails after her into the living room, the buzz of the alcohol almost completely gone. She tosses him his shirt playfully as he buttons his pants. "She's going to Center 15C," she says quietly. "Near the top end," Gale squints. "Mir! Merci!"

"Oh," Gale slips his shirt over his chest. "Oh! When did she leave?"

"About a week ago," she says with a shrug, searching for her own shirt somewhere on the floor. "Where'd that damn thing go?"

"Bedroom," he tells her, watching as she quickly rushes to find it. "Wait, how do you know?" Gale presses, his eyes trailing her every movement.

"She told me so! Let it slip, so she might've changed her mind, but she was really set on it."

"Sweet God," Gale rushes forward, wrapping the blonde in his arms. "Thank you, God thank you." She chuckles into his chest, returning the awkward hug. "I owe you." She raises an eyebrow, gesturing to the bed room. "Not like that," he laughs, starting toward the door. "Alysia,"

"Gale,"

"You know I have to go."

She nods, "Sadly. Now get before I force you in the bedroom myself."

Gale laughs, "Thank you." She smiles, leaning up and pressing her lips to his cheek before holding the door open for him, watching him escape into the night.

* * *

When Gale gets back to the hovercraft he can walk in a straight line. His head is pounding, his lips are swollen, but his pants are on and his brain is thinking properly. He knows where Madge is. He knows where Madge should be, anyways. She might not be there. It takes him awhile to climb the ladder, and when he does he opens the door to a _very _agitated Amicus and Nena, pacing back and forth.

"Where the hell have you been?" Nena hisses. "It's three in the morning!" Her hand travels up to the patched up scratch down his cheek. "How the hell'd you get that fixed?" Gale grunts and marches past her, but Amicus steps in the way.

"Gale," he holds his hand against his chest to stop him. "Stop. Where've you been?"

"I just wanna sleep, we'll leave in the morning," he grumbles. He wants to leave now, he wants to find her in the morning, but that just wasn't going to happen. He also wants to shower, get the feel of the girl who wasn't his off of his skin. He doesn't want them to know what he'd done, or well, almost done. Maybe Am, but not Nena. She'd call him a pig or something of the sort.

"Don't you want to know what we learned about Madge and Alend?" Nena taunts, grabbing his hand and pulling him to the couch. "Let me get you something for your head," Gale collapses on the sofa while Nena rushes into the kitchen department, rifling through the cabinets until he finds a bottle of blue pills that'll get rid of his headache. Am nestles himself on the couch across from him, leaving room for Nena to settle next to him.

"What'd you do?" Am asks him quickly while Nena's rifling. "Where were you?"

"Almost hooked up with some girl," he mutters quietly. Am's eyebrows shoot to his forehead. "Almost! I didn't! I stopped it!"

"Thank God," Amicus rubs his face as Nena enters the compartment. She hands Gale a pill and a glass of water. He downs the two quickly. "Anyway, we got Alend drunk. Like, flat on his ass drunk." Gale snorts, chugging the rest of the water. It'll help him sober up more. "Easy enough after you were gone, he just started spilling his guts. He's one of _those_ drunks."

"Him and Madge were engaged a few years ago," Nena picks up the story for him. "But Alend wasn't always faithful to her and she found out. Apparently, however, she was still going to get married to the bastard." She rolls her eyes and adds something like _idiot_ under her breath.

"He left her at the altar," Am finishes quietly. "Alend kept rambling about how it was the worst mistake of his life, some sort of bullshit story, I don't know."

"What the fuck," Gale groans, dropping his head into his hands and rubbing his forehead. He left Madge at the altar. He cheated on her and she was still going to marry him. She must've loved him a lot. "Meanwhile I was nearly having sex with some chick that looked just like her." He lets it slip anyway, groaning when he realizes what he's said. "Damnit."

"You _what_?" Nena gasps. "Gale _Hawthorne_!"

"He said _almost_," Am nudges her shoulder lightly, a smile playing at his lips.

"She took me to her house and cleaned up my cuts and got me even more drunk than earlier," he mumbles, keeping the story short. Gale decides to leave out the part about feeling lonely, the part about how it was a sort of revenge, how he just wanted to feel something again. "Then she told me Madge was in 15C on the top end, whatever that means."

"Northern Insula," Amicus notes, obviously understanding the Insulan slang. "Wait, she's there now?"

"That's what Alysia told me," Gale shrugs, finally lifting his head from his hands. "We leave in the morning, okay? I'm not letting that asshole find her before we do."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that," Nena grins. "We told him she's in Luto." Gale raises an eyebrow, a smile spreading across his face. "Told him we had a lead and we were leaving for Luto in the morning, he totally bought it. I, apparently, am a very trustworthy person. Even after being a bitch to him." A laugh bubbles out of Gale and he throws his head back. "Now tell me you love me."

"Hell, I love you," he looks up. "Just imagine if you hadn't come with us?"

"I don't like to think about that," Amicus mutters with a grin, his hand wrapping around her waist. She laughs, leaning into him tightly. "We're gonna find her. Okay? We will. Enough of this shit, we find her and we find her fast." The other two nod in agreement. "And then we thank her for giving us this crazy ass adventure."

"And for introducing us to Nena," Gale adds, watching her eyes sparkle and her cheeks tingeing pink.

"For getting me out of that Center," Nena smiles.

"For Team Find People!" Am shouts, fist pumping the sky as if he just won an award. All three of them burst into hysterics, they finally feel like they can breathe. They're close, they're closer than they've ever been. They can feel it in their bones.

* * *

_A/N: We're getting close, very, very, very close. Sorry for that brief burst of Alysia/Gale, but I felt like he was craving something. Thankfully, he didn't go through with it. He's still a guy, though, they have needs. More of an explanation with Alend once they actually find Madge, but for now that's all you're getting. Hope you like it._


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: Wild Goose Chase.**

* * *

Gale paces the hovercraft as Nena and Am take an overly long amount of time getting ready. Center 15C, they're here, Madge might be here. There is a very high chance that she could be here. If she isn't here then she just left. _Just_ left.

"Don't get your hopes up," Amicus strides by him, plopping his arm on his shoulder. "I don't want you doing that, Gale."

"I'm not getting my hopes up," he grunts out through clenched teeth. Am raises an eyebrow and crosses his arms. "I'm _not_." He's just nervous a bit. What does he say to her when he finds her? What if she really isn't here? An endless amount of possibilities are rushing through his head at top speed as he considers the advantages, the disadvantages. She's got to be here, he can feel it.

"All ready?" Nena asks, bounding out of the room with a chipper smile.

"I was ready an hour ago," Gale grumbles, rushing toward the door. Nena's been in a strangely optimistic mood as of lately, always smiling.

"I was doing my _hair_," she sticks her tongue out at him when he isn't looking. Amicus smirks and reaches for Nena's hand, entwining his fingers with hers to give a quick squeeze. Her cheeks flush a noticeable pink, and then her drops her hand, the three descending the ladder quickly.

Once on the ground, everything starts to go wrong. Half way to the Welcome Building, Amicus thinks he left the hovercraft unlocked. He refuses to go back and check unless everyone goes with him, so they have to turn around and take the twenty minute march again. The second time they hit the ground Gale accidently steps on Nena's foot and her uplifting attitude is suddenly diminished. As they start walking they realize they have no idea where the Welcome Building is. They stride right into the town, receiving many strange looks considering they just descended from a hovercraft. Most of the shops are closed and when they finally see ask a bystander they're told that it's Sunday.

"No one's out on Sunday," the person frowns at them. "Everyone's at church." He scurries away before the three can ask them anymore questions.

"This is going great," Gale utters under his breath, sliding his hands into his back pockets.

"Maybe we should flash our badges?" Amicus suggests.

"Yeah, I'm sure a town of Insulan people would _love _officers from Panem around here." She groans, shoving her hands in her back pockets as well. "Try again tomorrow?"

"What if she's gone by then?" Gale snaps at her.

Nena rolls her eyes, "Then maybe it's fate you just don't find her. Alright?" Gale's throat knots but he knows he has no other choice than to agree with Nena. The three make their way back to the hovercraft in silence. Somewhere on the walk Nena and Amicus's hands link and Gale crosses his arms stubbornly.

At the hovercraft they lower the hood, lounging out and listening to the waves that lap the shore off in the distance. Amicus pops a beer and trades it back and forth with Nena. The sun soaks up the air and Gale's eyes flutter shut, slowly allowing him to drift into a quiet peace.

In his dream Gale sits alone on the beach. The waves dance across the shore, slowly inching up the sand until they pool around his feet. The water rises until it's up to his waist, and then all of a sudden the waves are gone and so are his swim trunks. Gale looks down, realizing he's naked, and stands up quickly to get back to the hovercraft. As he turns around he faces a crowd of many. Nena, Amicus, Alend, Commander Veto, Juvo, all those he had met on his journey. And he's stark naked. Everyone brakes into laughter as Gale tries to cover himself up, but his attempts are futile. He can't break through the crowd, but the hovercraft is right there. In the window of the pilot's seat he sees the ghost of a face, a pale, blonde girl, smirking and shaking her head at him.

Gale sits up in a panic as if he had one of those falling dreams. Nena and Am look at him, both raising their eyebrows as his hands dart to his legs, Gale sighing with relief once he realizes he has pants on. "Bad dream?" Nena smirks. Gale turns to face his friends and finds them nestled together on the couch. Amicus is reading a book that had been illegal in Panem but Nena brought with her from Luto.

"Just a bit," Gale says back, rubbing his face. The sun has sunken in the sky, deep oranges and magentas mix with purples and blues above him. "How long've I been out?"

"All day," Am says back. "Missed lunch."

"We could've gone back in town," Gale lets out through a groggy voice. "Why didn't you wake me?"

"You've barely been sleeping at night," Nena rolls her eyes. "Besides, not only was today Sunday but Am looked it up and found out it's also some sort of holiday. Nothing would've been open. They were honoring the dead, no wonder they looked at us like we were crazy."

Gale groans, "Great." The night continues on like that, Nena and Amicus cuddling while discussing some man named Gatsby, and Gale lounging, watching the sky until it fades into black, stars twinkling above them.

The next day is bright and early, the three wasting no time to get down into town today. The entire attitude is different, people bustling back and forth in and out of shops, a happy mood in the air. Nena eyes each of the window displays and points enthusiastically, talking about how they'll have to go shopping later. Am agrees, but only to get her to shut up. Today, they're easily directed to the Welcome Building, but agitated to discover that it's overly busy.

After waiting in line for what feels like a few hours, they get to the front of a booth. "Hello, ma'am," Amicus charms her instantly, but keeps his hand in Nena's. "We were wondering if you could help us find someone?"

The brunette chews loudly on her gum and stares at them through her wide rimmed glasses. "What? Like a missing person or something? You gotta file that with the police."

"No," Nena shakes her head. "We're not filing a report or anything we're just looking for someone."

"They missing?" she rolls her eyes. "Like I said, cops."

"She's not missing," Amicus continues. "We just don't know if she's a resident here or not."

"So check with the po-_lice_," she says, tapping away on her computer. "I'm kinda busy, maybe you should check somewhere else."

"Ma'am," Amicus says again. He reads her nametag and puts on a painfully bright smile. "Trisy," the witch smiles up at them. "Can't you just do a residential search for us?" Am momentarily drops Nena's hand and reaches forward, grabbing the one of Trisy. "We've been searching the world for this girl, you see. My friend over there," he jerks his head to Gale who's taken a few steps away to catch his breath. "He's head over heels for her. Crazy in love."

Trisy blushes, "That is so _sweet_!" She's a stereotypical secretary, big fluffy pens, hair in a poof. "In love, you say?"

"Madly," he nods, twisting her hand so he could kiss it if he so wished. "We've got to find her. It would mean everything to us if you could search your records to see if she was here?"

"Well… if it's for love," she gushes, turning back to her screen and opening up a few random documents. Am finds Nena's hand again and he squeezes lightly, she laughs and wraps around his arm. Gale returns as Trisy is tapping away for a Madge, a Mara, a Mimi, a Merci. No, no, no. "This is wrong, all wrong! My computer must be malfunctioning." Trisy frowns and crosses her arms. "Listen, boys, I'm not even supposed to be doing these type of searches." She points across the crowd at a desk, the one with the longest line. "He is, though. He'll help you! Go find your love!"

Gale groans and marches to wait in the line while Amicus gives his thanks to the crazy brunette. She bats her eyelashes and waves goodbye with the tips of her fingers. "You're such a charmer," Nena mumbles as he pulls her away.

"Well I won you over somehow, didn't I?" he asks back, leaning down to press his lips quickly against hers. She blushes, swatting him away before they reach Gale who saw their act of affection anyway.

This line is twice as long. Gale almost resorts to twirling his thumbs but instead he bounces on his toes. Amicus taps his foot. Gale's nerves are being pushed through the roof. Finally the three reach the desk, confronting a man about their age. He smiles brightly at them, mostly Nena though, who Amicus steps in front of protectively.

"May I help you?" he asks pleasantly. They do the usual business, Mara, Mimi, Madge, Merci. M, M, M. "I'm sorry," the man frowns, "I don't know anyone by those names."

"That's the thing," Gale tells him, "she changes it each time."

"Each time?"

"She moves around a lot," Am says dismissively. "Kind of hard to track her after awhile."

"And it always starts with an M?" the man taps his chin. "Would she have just moved here?" Gale nods, raking his fingers through his hair. She has to be here, she _has_ to be here. "I haven't really met the new residents yet, but there's a building across town in which a lot of them are living in," he says. "I think there could be a few with an M name, I'm not entirely sure." His eyes flicker over to Nena who has stood silent the entire time, busying herself by playing with Am's hand. The man gives them the address, and then the three are walking again.

"Protective, much?" Gale snorts as he passes the two.

"Hey, he was making goo-goo eyes at my girlfriend," Amicus shoots at Gale. The latter raises an eyebrow with the term _girlfriend_, but says nothing. "No way in hell. No way." Again, Nena's blushing, muttering something about how she's not that shallow and just because he was looking at her it doesn't mean anything. "Whatever," he waves her off as she rambles. She presses on her toes and kisses his cheek gently while Gale makes a gagging noise in the background.

"Real mature," Nena snaps, and then the three are all laughing.

As they reach the residential building Gale's heartbeat quickens suddenly. He has that feeling, that feeling deep in his stomach that something's about to happen. They push open the door and march to the desk, an elder man who needs thick spectacles to see them smiles brightly in their direction. "Hello, young folk, my name's Yaston. How may I help you?"

"I'm looking to move in," Nena shouts quickly. Am and Gale both raise their eyebrows. "Just not today… I love this place." Am snorts, his hand traveling around her waist gently.

The old man laughs, "Well I'm glad Insula has charmed you too. I moved from Erat about twenty years ago, haven't found the strength to leave. Beautiful, isn't it?"

"Absolutely," Nena gushes. "I love the ocean, the air, it's so perfect here…"

"Nena," Am cuts her off. "Madge."

"Right, right, sorry."

Again, Yaston laughs. "No worries, back to the question of how I can assist you, though?"

"We're looking for someone," Gale tells him. "A girl. She might be living here." The old man pushes his glasses back so they hit the bridge of his nose, and smiles.

"Always a girl."

"Her name's Madge, but we don't think she's going by that anymore. Maybe another M name, however. Mara, Mimi… Merci…" Amicus continues the story. "It usually ends in a vowel. Know anyone of that adgenda?"

"Is she in trouble?" Yatson inquires, but slowly lumbers over to the computer and starts searching through some files.

Nena shakes her head, "No, we just want to find her. I haven't seen her in a few years. None of us have."

"Well, I've never seen her," Amicus laughs. Gale extracts the photos and slides them over the counter to Yaston. The old man looks up from the computer and scans the images. "Look familiar?"

"Maybe," he taps his chin. "My memory isn't what it used to be." Gale rocks back and forth on his feet. "I'll just check the records." All three nod and Nena grabs Gale's arm reassuringly, smiling up at him as if to say _stop worrying_. "Aha, we do have one recent M name! Milli Frasher." He taps at the screen. "Yes, yes she's a new one." Gale's eyes widen, sounds like a Madge name to him. He can tell Nena and Am think the same thing because they lean over the counter expectantly, trying to find a photo. Alas, there is none, only physical descriptions. "We haven't issued the latest groups ID cards yet, so there isn't a picture. But she's a brunette, about this high," Yatson lifts his hand to show the height.

"Brunette?" Nena blurts out. Gale's eyebrows furrow, Madge as a brunette? "Maybe she realized Alend was on her trail and she decided to switch it up?" she suggests weakly. Gale closes his eyes and tries to imagine the pretty blonde with a head full of dark hair, like Katniss, like Nena. It's not very suiting. "Is she here?"

"Hm," the elder scrolls slowly, his eyes browsing charts Gale can't read from his spot. "No, she and a friend went rock climbing this morning."

Amicus laughs, "Rock climbing? Are you serious?"

Yatson nods, "Oh yes. It's very popular here in the off time. Would you like the address?" The three nod, and then the group is once again following the trail of a ghost.

Once they reach the rock climbing building, receive directions from the worker there, and start on the path with a bag of supplies, the three start theories. "It can't be Madge," Gale shakes his head. "She'd never go brunette, she's got to be blonde."

"What if it is her?" Amicus shoots back. "Are you just gonna drop off the face of the earth? Give up?"

"No," he hisses. "But I know it's not her."

"Well if you know it's not her then why are we even doing this trek?" Nena grumbles. "I could be shopping… or we could be waiting at the resident center for them to come back."

"Do you even know what you're going to say to her?" Am asks Gale quietly. "Have you thought about it?"

He shrugs in response, "I just figured it'd come to me."

"And if it doesn't?"

"That'd be a whole lot of awkward," Nena replies through a smirk. All three continue their banter, their complaints, and their grumbling as they march along the trail. "You know," Nena starts to say. "I've never been rock climbing. There's a whole lot of mountains in Luto but I never…" her story gets cut off by a scream. A scream of terror that could only be 50 yards at most from them. The military training Amicus and Gale received back in Panem kicks in and they start running without even alerting Nena as to what they're doing.

"Emmy!" the voice is screeching. "Someone help her! Emmy!" Gale's first on the scene, always a faster runner than Amicus, and studies the brunette in front of him. Not Madge. "_Help_!" she shrieks to him.

"What happened?" Amicus is shouting as Gale wraps himself in harnesses quickly. There's no time to waste in a situation like this, no time to spend talking.

"We set everything up right!" the brunette is telling him tearfully. Nena arrives out of breath and walks over to comfort the girl. "Everything was right! Everything! The part where Emmy's wire hung from snapped! The wire _snapped_!"

"Set me up," Gale mutters to Amicus, tightening his harnesses around his thighs. He looks down at the heap of a girl on the ground, caught on a ledge. "Now, Am, now!" Amicus is busy at work hammering the peg into the ground and looping wires as fast as he can.

Nena tries to calm the brunette, asking her simple questions. "Are you Milli? Milli Frasher?"

"Yes," she sobs. "Oh, _Emmy_!" Nena glances up at the boys but they don't look toward her, they're too busy readying themselves for the rescue. "I _knew_ we should've brought the trainer! She insisted she knew what she was doing… said she'd done it before…" Nena tries to remind the girl that it isn't her fault that the wire snapped, but Milli keeps sobbing.

"I've got her," Gale says gently. "Don't you worry, okay? I've got her." Both boys had to learn rock climbing for training, as well as jumping out of an airplane and cave diving. It's all necessary, so this should be simple.

"You're good, Gale," Am tells him, and instantly Gale goes into overdrive. "Not gonna let you fall." He nods, slipping over the side of the mountain without hesitation and sliding down step by step. He doesn't have a helmet, nor rock climbing shoes, and he's starting to curse himself for leaping over the edge without taking extra precautions. His eyes glance over at the snapped wire of the girl named Emmy and his stomach knots. "Faster, Gale," Am says impatiently from the top of the cliff. "You're almost there. Alright? Almost there." He takes a breath and opens his eyes, searching for the ledge and making his feet land patiently, steadily.

"Emmy?" Gale says as he unlatches himself from the wires. "My name's Gale, can you hear me?" he leans over the girl who's face down, unsure of what he's supposed to do next. You're not exactly supposed to move people once they've fallen, especially if they've broken something. Emmy could've broken anything, everything. Her helmet's cracked and she's unresponsive. "Shit. Emmy? We're going to get you out of here, okay? Call an ambulance!" he shouts up to Amicus, praying his voice was loud enough. "You're gonna be okay," he says to the girl again. Gale was told that you're supposed to talk to the people even if you think they can't hear you, because maybe they can. "You just hit your head is all," he reaches the wire and straps himself back to it, then leans down to turn her slowly. "Emmy if you can hear me…" but his voice gets caught in his throat as the girl rolls to face upward.

This isn't Emmy. It's Madge Undersee.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: Not like this**

* * *

"Gale?" Amicus calls down from the top of the cliff. "You okay?" The panicked voice of his friend is what gets Gale to snap back into rescue mode. Internal bleeding, fractured ribs, she could be dying right now. In one quick swoop Gale leans down, picking her up dead weight and grunting. "Ready?"

"Ready!" Gale shouts back, although he isn't quite ready. "Undersee I swear to God if you die on me now," he hisses to her, despite her lack of response. He hoists her over her shoulder. "Am! It's gonna be slow!"

"Got it!" he calls down. "Now?"

"Now!" Gale balances Madge awkwardly over his shoulder, making sure she's hanging in the proper position so she won't fall. "Jesus _Christ_," he grunts, his feet starting the climb up the cliff. His foot slips and he's back at the bottom. Gale leans against the cliff and takes a deep breath, he hears Madge moan in pain over his shoulder. How is he supposed to _do _this?

"Gale! The emergency hovercraft is on its way! We've got to get her up here by then!" Nena calls down. Gale _thunks _his head once against the cliff and then tries again, slower. His feet find the grooves in the rock and he tightens his grip around Madge. She's alive, she's okay. She could be dying. With that thought he reaches up, grunting under the weight he has to carry. Gale knows he's carried heavier than this, that it isn't any problem whatsoever, he just can't hurt her. He can't let her die. He can't imagine what he'd do if that were to happen.

Step, climb, readjust, check pulse, unsteady breathing, pulling up, he's almost there. Once his head is into view Nena shouts about the hovercraft, and then Amicus leans down and lifts Madge up, laying her backwards on a gurney. "I'm going with her," Gale pushes himself up.

"Gale she isn't any of our…" Amicus trails off as Milli pushes the blonde's hair out of her face. "Holy shit."

"Mimi!" Nena gasps as Gale ignores the both of them, ripping off his climbing gear and helping the Insulan hospital recruits lift the gurney onto the ship. "Holy… Gale, we can't go with her, we…"

"I'm _going_," he snaps at her, hoisting himself onto the ship and then reaching down and helping Milli up. There was no way he was just letting her go. Not now. Not after all this searching. "I'll see you guys there." Milli releases a sob as the door is pulled shut, and then Amicus and Nena glance at each other.

"That was her," Am says slowly, and Nena nods. "We found her." Again, Nena nods. "What do we… what do we do now?"

She grins, reaching up and grabbing his face gently. "We celebrate." Amicus laughs, his hands wrapping lightly around her waist as he leans down and presses his lips against hers.

Meanwhile in the hovercraft, Gale holds Madge's hand softly. He closes his eyes, and for the first time in what feels like forever, he prays. He prays to God that she doesn't suffer any sort of memory loss. He prays that when Madge wakes up she'll remember him, that she won't totally write him off. Gale prays that whatever happens that she ends up happy. He prays for peace and serenity and the ability to breathe again considering he seems to have lost it.

Doctors shout and medics rush back and forth but he refuses to let go of her hand. Even Milli leaves the hospital once Madge's stabilized, going back to the housing units to tell everyone what had happened. But not Gale. He sits, and he waits. He watches her chest rise and fall with every faint breath, he listens to the beeping of the heart monitor as it drones on. They've told him she won't wake up for a few hours, that he should get something to eat or get some fresh air, but he doesn't. He's still covered in dirt and grime and sweat but he doesn't care.

Nena and Amicus show up and wait outside the room, glancing in the window and feeling their hearts twist as they watch the scene. Everyone is thinking the same thing, although no one speaks. What if she doesn't remember Gale? What if she wakes up and tells him she can't be with him, or some other awful thing? Gale doesn't know what he'd do…

His eyes trace the curves of her flushed cheeks, the tip of her nose. Madge is just as beautiful as she was five years ago, just as soft, just as innocent. They raked all the rocks out of her hair when she first arrived, so now it flows naturally down her shoulders. Just like it always had. He chews on the inside of his cheek and tightens his grip on her hand, firm, not rough. As his fingers lace with hers, as he feels the pulse of her heart, Gale allows his thoughts to drift back to that night so long ago, how one simple kiss had escalated to so much more. The feel of her skin under his hands, her breath mixing with his, all because of one kiss. And she was the one to do it, not the other way around. Madge wasn't going to leave without saying goodbye, she was going to leave her impression on Gale Hawthorne, and she did so perfectly.

Hours pass and Madge finally shifts in her bed. Her eyes stay shut and her hand linked with Gale's, but she doesn't speak, doesn't call out. She just shifts. Gale looks up and studies her, watching intently as she blinks herself awake. His hand loosens his grip and she stretches, arching her back and cringing in pain. Once Madge rubs her eyes and looks up, spotting Gale, she freezes. Her voice comes out hushed, "Am I dead?"

A grin spreads on Gale's face and he shakes his head no quickly, "Not yet."

"Then how…" she shifts again and a spark of pain stabs at her spine. "Jesus, Hawthorne, what the hell are you doing in Insula?" Her hands shake as she rakes them through her hair nervously, unable to look away from the boy in the chair next to her. It's like she'd seen a ghost.

He's not aware that his voice quivers, "I could ask the same of you, Undersee."

A smirk slips onto her face, "I haven't been called that in a long time." There's a pause as she thinks about her name, her _real_ name. "However," she finally continues, "I do believe I asked first." Gale watches her for a moment as she pulls herself into an upright position, slowly, yet successfully. She's alive, she's _alive._ And she's here, right in front of him, breathing, smiling. It was like it was too good to be true.

"I was looking for someone," he says quietly. Madge swallows and drops her eyes from him, fiddling with her hands in her lap. "Found em." Her cheeks burst with pink as she looks back up at him.

"This isn't happening," she replies just as softly. Gale sits on the edge of his chair and leans closer to her. "I must be in a coma," she says, her hand reaching up to stroke his cheek. "Dreaming." His heart picks up pace as her fingers caress his skin. "Please tell me I'm awake."

A nervous smile spreads across his lips, "You're awake."

* * *

After a few more hours of precautionary checks and procedures, Madge is allowed to leave the hospital. Her legs are shaky and she has to use Gale to keep herself sturdy. His arm stays firm around her waist, guiding her down the hallway. When Madge sees Nena, however, it's like she's completely healed. She rushes forward, throwing out her arms and wrapping the Luto girl in her arms tightly.

"You stupid idiot!" Nena shouts, squeezing all the life out of her friend. "What the hell is up with this name bullshit! And dipping out in the middle of the night? We skewered half the planet for you!"

"I missed you too," Madge croaks through a laugh. Nena picks her up and spins her. Despite having a million reasons to hate Madge, Nena doesn't. She missed her, it's as simple as that.

"I don't know what to even call you anymore! Madge? Mimi? I kind of like Madge."

"Madge it is," she replies weakly, her hand cupping Nena's face. "It's good to see you."

* * *

At first, Gale doesn't know what to say. All he can do is watch as Madge talks with Nena, watch as she introduces herself to Amicus. The whole thing feels surreal. He can't wrap his head around the fact that he found her, that she's actually here. Every time she laughs his heart twists in his stomach, every time her hand brushes his he gets nervous. What next? Thankfully, Amicus is able to keep his head on straight. He sees that Gale doesn't exactly know what to do with himself and suggests that they all go for drinks in the hovercraft.

"Hovercraft?" Madge's eyes light up. "You have your own?"

"Property of Panem, technically, but we've been living on it for the past few months," Gale tells her. Again her cheeks tinkle with pink and its all he has to not lean down and kiss her. He helps her climb the ladder slowly considering her entire body is still aching, but eventually she makes it up with ease. After the bottles pop and everyone has their own glass, things start to settle again. Nena and Am cuddle on the couch and quiz Madge about her life, yet she's reluctant to answer much.

"I'd much rather hear about your lives," she tells them all. "Anything, really."

"You're the one that's been traveling from place to place, not us," Nena notes. Madge shrugs, and then they switch to talking about things like the weather and current events. Eventually, Am and Nena slip off to bed and it's just Madge and Gale. Quiet, very quiet for a bit. Both unsure of where to start, so they just sip.

"So you were looking for me," Madge says softly. Gale nods once and her face contorts into a look of confusion. "Why? For how long? I just don't… I don't understand." He watches as she rubs at her forehead, most likely considering it still hurts from her fall today. "I figured you'd just…" she trails off, shaking her head.

His eyebrows narrow, "I'd just what?"

"I don't know. Get married to Katniss, or something. Be a war hero."

"Well I am a war hero," he smirks, and then she smiles too. "Katniss and Peeta are engaged," he tells her.

Madge laughs, "You must be thrilled."

Gale chuckles and shrugs, "She's my best friend. I'm happy if she's happy." Madge bites at her lip, unsure if she should ask. Gale sees the look in her eye, however, the desire for knowledge, the craving of curiosity. "I don't love her," he tells her. "Not like that."

"That's not what I was going to ask," Madge flushes again, and then fiddles with her hands. An eyebrow shoots up Gale's forehead and she sighs, "Alright, maybe it was." Madge picks herself up from her seat across the room and takes the one next to Gale, forcing him to look into her eyes. Gray and blue collide and Gale's feels sparks in his stomach, he could swim in her eyes forever. "Why were you looking for me?"

He leans slightly closer, "You did say I could see you again." Again her hand is reaching up, cupping his face. "Would you rather me have not?"

"It kind of feels like fate to me," she whispers. "Like a confused, twisted fate." He laughs and she pulls her hand away, licking her lips before taking a sip of her drink and then placing the glass on the coffee table. "If you hadn't been looking then I probably would have died at the bottom of that cliff." His heart sinks in his stomach but she wears a soft smile. "I don't understand anything that's happening right now. Anything. At all." Again, she was nibbling on her lip.

"I just had to find you," Gale admits weakly. "I don't know what I thought when happen when I did… I just had to."

"It was one night, Gale,"

"I know that," he says faintly. "I just needed… needed to see you, to know that it wasn't fake, that it actually happened." His hands rake through his hair nervously. "I never planned out anything to say, never thought about repercussions, it was just this uncontrollable urge to _find_ you." In one swift motion Madge changed her position so she was sitting on her knees, leaning across and grabbing his face gently. "You don't have to…" but he was cut off by the gentle press of her lips against his.

Just like that night, everything but his thoughts suddenly makes sense. He knows how to lean, where to touch. Gale drops his glass, not caring as it shatters against the floor, and snakes his hand around her waist lightly. A few of her ribs are fractured so he's careful not to hurt her. Madge's lips moved lightly against his, soft, sweet, she still tastes like sugar. Her free hand reaches up and tangles in his hair, pulling him up closer to her. Slowly, Gale turns her body so she's nestled on his lap. Her kisses switch, going down his jaw painfully slow. Every breath of air against his skin makes him shudder. "M-Madge," he sighs, his voice getting stuck in his throat. His hands press against the small of her back and she lifts her mouth to kiss him again.

"How long," she forces out between their lips, "have you been looking?"

"Feel like forever," he murmurs, dipping to suck on her collarbone.

"Why?" she asks again, panting as his teeth graze her skin. He can't answer, though, because he doesn't know why. And if he were to know why, if he _were_ to admit the feelings behind his actions she'd think he was crazy, she'd call him a liar. Her nails scrape across his chest, stopping at the hem of his shirt and pressing it upwards. "Gale," his name in her mouth is magic, his stomach twisting. "I never thought I'd see you again…" Madge's legs wrap around his chest and her arms snake around his neck.

Gale doesn't hesitate to stand, pushing himself from the couch but cradling her in his arms. Silk skin, gentle caresses, he must be dreaming. She presses her body against his, needy, desperate. Gale bangs her backwards against his door and she laughs into his mouth, the vibrations causing his skin to stand on end. "Sorry," he murmurs, but she just laughs, pulling herself closer. The door slams shut and he lays her gently on his bed, his hands skirting up under her shirt gently. His hands pause on her hips and he pulls himself away instantly. "Wait."

Madge raises an eyebrow and sits up. "What?"

"Not… not like this," he shakes his head and runs his hands through his hair. "I don't want it to be like this."

"What do you…"

"I didn't travel halfway across the world for a quick hookup, Madge," he says to her. Her fingers pull on the tips of her hair as she searches the emotion on his face. Unreadable, confused. "Not… not like this."

"Then what do you want?" she asks quietly, her hands sliding up his face. "Gale. What do you want?"

"I want…" he trails off, turning so his forehead can press against hers. "I want you. I want you to stay with me tonight."

She smiles, the dim light of the room catches in her eyes. "Just tonight?"

Gale dips, his lips skirting across hers. "More than that," he whispers. "But for now, tonight will do."

* * *

_A/N: I'd say a burst of passion was needed. More from Madge about her past next chapter, as well as some possible conflicts coming up... story coming to a close soon. Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up, I wanted it just right. _


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: Time to Talk**

* * *

Gale wakes up with Madge wrapped around his chest. Her face is nuzzled against him and he can't help but smile. It wasn't a dream, it all actually happened. Madge shifts in bed and her eyes flitter open, a light smile spreading across her face.

"Morning," she murmurs. Even with bed head she looks like a damn angel. She blinks a few more times and snuggles a bit closer, her hand strolling across his bare chest.

"Morning," he whispers back. She presses up quickly and her lips graze across his. "How'd you sleep?"

"You're warm," she replies lightly. Gale grins, twisting so he can kiss her again. Kiss, kiss, gentle kisses. Without her lips on his Gale feels lost. "What about you?" she says sometime in between.

"Great," he says with a smile. Gale decides it best if he doesn't mention the fact that he woke up with a nightmare. His eyes had searched the bed in a panic but Madge was there, curled in a ball wearing one of his military shirts, resting against him. The worried had seeped out of him quickly and he pulled her body closer. The night before all they had done was stay up, whispering like they were telling secrets. Every few moments they'd share a kiss, a sweet reminder that she was here, that she hadn't gone anywhere. Not yet. They talked about Am and Nena, they talked about Peeta and Katniss. He didn't ask her about Alend or why she kept changing her names. Gale knew she'd tell him when she was ready.

"Gale Hawthorne," she breathes against his lips. His arm wraps around her waist as she pushes herself up, hovering over him. "You're a proper gentleman."

"Trying my best to be," he laughs as her hands wrap around his neck, rake across his chest. They can't find a place to settle, they want to be everywhere at once. "M… Madge," he throws his head back and she grins. "You make it overly difficult." With a laugh she presses kisses across his jaw, pulling her body as close to his as possible. "Do you have somewhere to be today?"

"Yeah," she tells him quietly, "right here." She laughs as he flips her over, now Gale's the one leaning above, pressing kisses against her. "I still feel like I'm dreaming," she tells him in between their lips.

"Join the club," Gale nips at her lightly. She sighs, her head falling back against the pillow. "Hey, I have some questions." Now that he thinks about it, Gale probably should have asked some time last night, but he didn't. She arches an eyebrow and pushes herself into a sitting position. "Do you have any kids?"A snort escapes her and she shakes her head no. Gale grabs the hem of her shirt, _his_ shirt that she's wearing, and pulls her closer. "Addicted to any drugs?"

"Never," she beams, giving into his advances. Her lips press quickly against his before he pulls away again.

"Married?"

"Because I'd be here if I was married," she snickers, her hands pooling around his face. "No kids, no drugs, no marriage or boyfriend… just me." Madge licks her lips, "Are you okay with that?"

"Perfectly okay with that," Gale nods. She goes back to kissing him, carving her body to fit around his. Clinging, holding, panting. "Why didn't you come back?" he breathes. Madge's eyes flicker open and she squints, pulling away so she can watch him. "To Panem? I waited… I…"

"You did?" He nods and drops his gaze. Not exclusively, of course, but he had been waiting. Waiting for the flash of blonde hair, the sparkle of her blue eyes, only it never came. He eventually sent in the requests to travel, to start _looking_. "I didn't have much to go back to," she says quietly. "My parents were gone, so was the only home that I knew. Everyone would be different, every_thing_ would be different. I didn't know what reason I had to return. Everyone already thought I was dead, I just figured it was best if I…"

"I didn't," Gale cups her face. "I knew you were alive and all I wanted was to see you again."

"I always thought…" she shakes her head and drops her gaze. "I don't know. I didn't know everything meant so much to you, I figured I was just some pretty girl for you to kiss and…"

"You were never that," Gale cuts her off. He thinks back to those nights before the Quell where they'd lay out in the meadow. He was reluctant at first, but he was also lonely. He wanted someone to talk to, someone who understood what it was like to lose a friend, and that was Madge. It all changed when Katniss got back, they just stopped talking. Awkward glances in the Square, nearly silent trades being made. Gale convinced himself that they were just filling in holes in their lives, and when Katniss was back and the hole wasn't there anymore… but it wasn't like that. He just convinced himself that's what. When she brought him the morphling and he yelled at her…

"_You didn't need to do that!" Gale hissed through gritted teeth. "Just because you have all this wealth and power doesn't mean that you can just go around and _waste_ it!"_

"_I wasn't wasting it," Madge replied calmly, her eyes on the ground. "I was saving your life. And I did it because I wanted to." _

"_You think you're so much better than me," Gale laughed dryly, his hands in fists by his sides. "Don't you?" Before she could answer Gale took a step back. "We're done, alright? Whatever friendship we had… whatever happened between us. Just forget it."_

"_Gale," Madge followed as he tried walking away. "It's not like that!"_

"_Hell if it isn't, Undersee." _

"_You want to resort back to last names?" she shouted, her eyes glistening in pain. "Fine, _Hawthorne!_" The use of it made his insides cringe, but he said nothing. "I did it because I didn't want to see you in pain."_

"_You did it because you felt sorry for me," he growled. _

"_Of course I did!" Madge threw her hands up in the air and circled around so she was facing him again. "But not because I _pitied _you. You're getting them confused, I…"_

"_Just forget it," Gale repeated. "I'm tired of feeling like this." If Madge asked 'like what', he didn't hear. He was already too far away from her. Like Seam. Like charity. He was tired of it. Especially when it involved her._

Madge pulls him back to the present with another kiss, her warm lips barely pressing against his. It's enough to get his heart racing, to get his hands trailing against her skin. "If I knew," she tells him. "If I knew that you… everything would have been different." He nods, gently pulling her into his arms more. "No, _everything_ would have been different," she rests in his stronghold and breathes deeply.

"Like what?" he asks her.

Without hesitation she answers, "Everything." A knock on the door makes the two halt in their conversation.

"What do you want?" Gale groans. Madge smiles at his annoyance and licks her lips, kissing him teasingly slow while they wait for an answer from the other side. She pulls his bottom lip in to her mouth and he holds back a moan.

"Breakfast," Am calls through the door. His voice has an obvious pitch to it that causes the two to know he's grinning. "If you're hungry."

"Mmm," Gale forces out as Madge continues her kissing, running her tongue against his lips. "Yeah, sure, out in a… second…" Amicus snickers on the other side of the door and Madge pulls away from Gale, biting her lip. "You're a tease." She grins, a blush spreading across her face as she pulls him out of bed. Gale slips on a shirt and wraps his hand around her waist. "We have a lot to talk about later," he says quietly before they reach the door. "You know that, yeah?"

"I knew I wouldn't get off that easy," she sighs, but a light smile plays at her lips. "Okay." The two stroll out into the kitchen area, hands linked loosely as Gale pulls her along. "Morning," she smiles at Am and Nena who sit at the table with cups of coffee.

"Good morning," Am cheers back with a grin. Nena nudges his side and he nearly drops his mug, a bit of the bitter liquid splashing out. "How'd you sleep?"

"Great," Madge says back, feeding the imagination Am might have. "Nice and warm. Very refreshing." Gale snorts and hands her a cup of coffee which she drinks from gratefully.

"Ah, that's good," the two that just entered slide into the seats across from the others. "Oh, avoid the living room. A cup shattered, I've still got to wipe up the glass."

"Shame," Gale mutters over his mug, noticing the dig Am made at him.

"So Madge," Nena places her own cup down and turns to her friend, changing the subject before Amicus can make it into a bigger joke. "Are you still sore?" Madge chokes on her coffee and Amicus lets out a laugh so clear Nena's face runs pale. "From the fall! I meant from the fall!" The four exchange glances and then they all start laughing, Gale raking his hands through his hair with a grin.

* * *

"I like your friend," Madge tells Gale as they walk hand in hand along the beach. The two knew they weren't going to get in time for a decent conversation with Amicus and Nena constantly badgering them. "He's funny."

"Please don't tell him that," Gale groans. "It would go to his head and he'd start cracking jokes all the time expecting people to laugh…" Madge giggles at this and pulls herself closer, wrapping herself around his arm. Their feet press into the sand and Gale takes a moment to note the way she clings to him, his heartbeat picking up in his chest. "When I first got to Erat," he says quietly. "Well, Am told me it was a place for known refugees." Madge squeezes his hand lightly. "I met someone named Juvo," Gale tells her.

"Oh," she sighs lightly. "I miss him." There's a pause as she scrunches her nose, waiting for his question. "You want to know why I left."

"Only if you want to tell me."

Again Madge sighs, dropping his arm and turning to face him. "Gale,"

"You don't have to tell me," he repeats. The look in her eyes is strong, he knows that she'll tell him only because she thinks she has to. "You _don't_."

"I want to," she says again. "But I… I don't know." Her fingers pull through her hair and look of pure confliction crosses her face. "I left for a lot of reasons." Gale remains expressionless as her hands tug on the hem of her shirt. "I… okay. It started with my parents dying," she says quietly. "They were the only people I had… I got really depressed. I…" she frowns. "I almost… I almost tried to…" she sighs angrily and crosses her arms. "It doesn't matter." Gale understands what she tried doing. His face contorts as he thinks about how hopeless things have to seem for someone to go that far. "Juvo stopped me before I did anything stupid and he took me under his wing. It was like I had a father again, things started getting better." Gale smiles, Juvo certainly did care about Madge. Especially if he stopped her from doing something drastic. "I got a job," Madge continues. "I got my own place, started making real friends. I worked in this, this restaurant. I met a boy there." She smiles a bit, "I actually met a lot of guys there."

Snorting, Gale says, "Reassuring."

"Only one was a problem though," she says quickly. "He was so _infuriating_. I think that's why I liked him, he was kind of like you." Gale wrinkles his nose and she laughs, leaning forward to rest against him. "I thought about you a lot. I don't know why. It was stupid."

"No it wasn't," he says. "I thought about you too." Madge lifts himself from his chest as he leans down, pressing his forehead against hers. "More than I should have," he whispers. Her hand reaches up, curling around his face before she presses on her toes so her lips are against his. As much as he doesn't want to, Gale breaks the kiss. "More about this boy," he says weakly.

Madge frowns and pulls away, Gale straightening himself again. "I kept saying no. He wanted to take me on dates and such but I just kept saying no. It was hard for me to care about people after my parents, Juvo was pretty much the only exception. One day though, I caved." Gale clenches his teeth as the story continues, knowing who the boy was. "It was easy to pretend like I loved him. He bought me lots of things, he always made me feel special."

"Pretend?"

"I don't know if I ever really loved him," she says. "I wanted to. I really did, I wanted to love _someone_. I convinced myself it was him, that I loved him." This confession lifts a small weight from Gale's shoulders. "I don't know. I really don't. He… he asked me to marry him. We had been dating for a few months and I just wanted to feel loved, he made me feel loved. So I said yes."

"What was his name?" Gale asks quietly, just to make sure she's talking about the right person.

"Alend," she replies just as softly, her voice strangled as though she doesn't like to say it. "I walked in on him a few days before the wedding with another girl." She squints, "It was the girl I thought to be my best friend." Madge blinks, her eyes slowly filling with tears. "He said sorry a lot, I thought he really was… I figured he meant it." Gale leans down again, his arms wrapping around her waist and pulling her into his chest. She sniffles and continues, "I didn't think I would find anyone better anyways, so I decided to still marry him." His grip tightens as he feels tears leak through his shirt. "And it ended with him not even showing up to the wedding…" her voice cracks and then the tears really start falling. Gale pictures her in her wedding dress, more beautiful than ever, all by herself. The entire turn out just watching her, waiting for the groom who never came. "I'd forgiven him and still wasn't good enough."

"Madge," Gale leans himself down, his hands reaching up to cup her face. "That's bull. That's a load of bull. You deserved better than him, he's just an asshole." Madge launches herself on her toes again, attacking his face with her lips. "You're so much better than him," he mumbles. "So much better." All the meanwhile he's thinking about how he'd never hurt her, how he'd never let anything like that happen to her again. "Madge, the story," he whispers through a strangled voice.

She pulls away, and he reaches down, wiping under her eyes. "That was it," she says weakly. "I left. I couldn't be there anymore, not after that. So I packed my bags and left a note and slipped out in the middle of the night." Gale slides his hand to cup her cheek and she pulls away. "I kept doing that. I'd just slip out in the middle of the night, leave a note whenever things got too comfortable."

"You kept changing your name," he says gently.

"Harder for people to find me that way," she replies. "I didn't want him trailing me, making up some apology that I'd probably fall for. I wanted to start over so I just kept leaving. I didn't want people caring about me, I didn't want to care about other people. Of course I always did, and that's why I kept leaving." She bites her lip, "I'll probably leave here too."

"Madge,"

"It's not like I want to," her voice wavers. "I don't! I'll just end up doing it before I can stop myself."

"No," Gale shakes his head. All the time he spent searching, she'd make it harder for him to find her again. "You can't. Madge," his voice gives out as he sees himself going back to Panem to work in 2 with nothing but a memory. He needs more, he can't let her leave. She can't leave.

"You deserve better than me anyway," she says weakly. Again Gale cups her cheek, lifting her up to look at him. "Gale,"

"You're the best it gets for me," he tells her quietly. He doesn't want anyone else. He doesn't want to see other girls, he doesn't want her seeing other guys. Her, that's all he wants. Madge. She shakes her head and drops her gaze. "Yes, Madge. It's always been you." Gale thinks back to the first time she got him to laugh, the first time they spent out in the meadow without talking about the Games or Katniss and Peeta kissing or anything like that. They just talked. He thinks about how his eyes followed her in the Square every time he saw her, how he balled his hands into fists whenever he missed an opportunity to talk to her. They had been friends, but it was more than that.

"I'll just leave again!" she nearly shouts. "I'm not good at caring about people! Especially you, Gale!" Before he can ask what she means she shakes her head and takes another step back, dragging her fingers through her hair. "I'm scared of hurting people but I'm more scared of getting hurt, and if I think that, for one second…"

"I'll never hurt you," Gale lurches forward. "Madge, I'll never hurt you." The desperation in his voice is evident, he wants nothing more than for Madge to believe him. "Everything from before, everything I had said, everything I had done wrong, I'm _sorry_. That's not me anymore, I'm not like that." She sucks in a sharp breath. "Let me prove it, I'll do anything to prove it."

"Why does it matter?" she asks as Gales links his hands with hers. "Why can't I leave now and there be no hard feelings?" The questions she asks have no serious meaning to them, they're light and weak, almost teasing. Like she won't leave, but just in case she does.

"After last night?" he leans down, his head against hers. "All the kissing? I can't go back now."

"There's more than that," she shakes her head. "I can see it in your eyes. What is it? Why can't you let me go?"

Gale opens his mouth to speak, say something witty, but he can't. He knows why he can't let her go. "Because." Madge raises an eyebrow and he furrows his brows. "Because sometime over the past couple of weeks while I was looking for you… I…" he swallows. "I fell in love. I fell in love with the girl who planted trees to save the rainforest and worked in an orphanage without pay. The girl who always smiles in her pictures and the girl who…"

"No," Madge cuts him off, rubbing at her eyes as her smile disappears. "You don't love me, you can't. You don't know me anymore."

"But I want to," he adds gently. "I want to sit down with you and listen to your stories and your adventures. And I want to hold you. And I want you to be here with me so I can prove that I do. That I do love you. Give me that chance, Madge."

She thinks for a minute. Of course it's difficult for Madge to believe him. She just said how the person she thought she was in love with abandoned her in more ways than one. Her arms cross over her chest and she takes a few steps back and gazing up at the sky briefly before returning to him. "I can't promise you much," she tells him, dropping her arms to her side. "I want to, but I can't." He nods a few times as she steps closer. "But I can say that I won't leave without telling you first. If I leave, we… we can talk about it first."

"That's all I'm asking," he says tiredly. Now he's the one closing the distance but she responds by pulling on his shirt, bringing him down to her. "I just want to be with you," he whispers before kissing her softly. "I just want that chance."

She nods, her hand trailing up his side before gliding across his cheek. "I'd be an idiot if I didn't give it to you."

* * *

_A/N: Coming up to the end. Maybe three chapters left. Let me know how you like it._


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14: An Encounter**

* * *

Gale and Madge walk hand in hand through the town, the blonde eager to show him the nightlife that she has fallen in love with. The air is warm, the night left twinkling stars to shine in the sky. The two have spent the past week getting to know each other again, Madge basically living on board the hovercraft and stealing Gale's clothes to sleep in. Every time Gale learns something new about Madge his heart sings, confirming the fact that he's head over heels for her. Gale isn't a big fan of going out mostly because whenever he went out with the guys he'd get so drunk he couldn't remember a thing, but if that's what Madge wanted to do then so be it. He was bent on making sure he didn't get wasted tonight. With Madge's hand in his he feels unstoppable, like anything can happen.

And anything does happen. They round a corner to get to the club, Madge laughing at something Amicus had said earlier, and walk smack into the last person on the entire planet that they wouldn't want to see. It would appear he didn't go searching in Luto after all. The smile evaporates from Madge's face and Gale doesn't hesitate to push her behind him.

"Hawthorne," Alend's voice is seething. The man from Erat has no pause in his voice, he doesn't study the other for more than a moment. It takes Gale a moment to realize that's who's in front of him although he knew from the very start. Alend. He hadn't gone back to Luto like Nena said she convinced him. Gale studies the purples and greens around Alend's eyes, the mark Gale surely left. "I thought your friend had lied to me, you three lovely people hadn't gone to Luto after all. I mean, she was a Lutian, was I supposed to assume you were all making a stop in Insula and then heading home? Why would she try to help _me_?" Gale takes a step back, making sure Madge is behind him. "Of course, it took me a few aspirins to realize this. I'm not an idiot." Alend eyes the blonde behind Gale and a smile creeps onto his face. "You found her for me, how sweet."

"Get out of here," Gale says coldly. "Before you make me break your nose." That was all Gale could muster up, the surprise of seeing Alend, the shock had made him forget how to speak. He had a girl to defend and his brain just wasn't cooperating. All he could do was stand there and look surly.

"Gale," Madge wraps her arms around Gale's chest and presses her face into his back. "Let's just go." She doesn't question how the two know each other, but Gale's sure she'll ask later. She reaches for his hand to try and pull him away but Gale holds his ground. "Come on," she pleads, her voice verging on desperation.

"Nice to see you, Madge," Alend stands on his toes to look over Gale's shoulder.

"Wish I could say the same," she mutters back. The rage building up inside of Gale is immense, the only thing that stops him from lashing out is Madge's hand resting over his fist. "Gale, please,"

Her ex-fiancé frowns, "You're not being very kind, trying to leave without hearing me out. I traveled half the world to find you."

"For _what_," she hisses, "an apology?" Gale doesn't drop his stare, his eyes narrow on the other. "Too late, that's too late. Come on," she tugs Gale again but he drops her hand, marching forward a bit.

"You honestly think she'd want to hear you out?" Gale jabs his finger at Alend's chest. "You cheated on her, and then you left her at the _altar_. You're the filthiest scum I've ever encountered in my _life_, Madge deserves someone better than you."

"Like who?" Alend scoffs, pushing Gale's shoulders back a bit, "You?"

"Yes," Madge answers timidly from behind. "Like Gale." Gale turns a bit, a small smile spreading on his face as his stomach bubbles. Alend reaches forward and grabs Gale's shoulder, pulling him forward a bit. "Alend!" Madge gasps, grabbing the back of Gale's shirt as if she can protect him from harm. "Let him go!"

"Pathetic!" Alend shouts, pushing Gale forward again. People start to stop and watch from around the square. The small gesture doesn't affect Gale, he's had to deal with worse since joining the army. People shouting in his face, punches in the jaw just because. "_You_? You don't know anything!" Again Madge is pulling on Gale's shirt, but he just flexes his shoulders. "I came to _apologize_, Madge was the best thing that ever happened to me. I fucked up, obviously, and I wanted to say sorry! To show her that I've changed!"

"I don't give a damn what you want to say to her, your words mean jack shit." He pauses, reaching back to grab Madge's hand. "Do you want to hear what he has to say?" Her head shakes timidly and Gale can't help but smirk. That's what Madge wanted to avoid, hearing an apology that meant nothing which she'd end up falling for. "There, we've got this all sorted." Alend lunges forward, Gale dropping his hand from Madge's instantly to push the man off of him. His hand rears back to hit Gale in the face and he ducks, but not fast enough. Alend's fist catches Gale's jaw, a crack echoing through the suddenly quiet square.

Gale lifts his fist and throws it forward without pause, nailing Alend right in the nose. Madge flinches behind him but stays where she is. "Never again," Gale forces out. "You will never talk to her again. Go back to Erat. Or better yet, don't. Don't go anywhere. Just stay here for the rest of your life." Gale starts walking away but then returns. "Actually, do whatever the hell you want. I don't even care." Madge rushes forward, grabbing his throbbing hand lightly and pulling him away from the square.

"Gale Hawthorne," Madge mutters, massaging his hand as she pulls him toward her housing unit. "Why on earth… how do you even know him?"

"Last time I saw him I punched him in the face," Gale tells her, his face swelling in pain from the throw that Alend got in. "Can't stand him, to be honest." Madge casts nervous glances over her shoulder as they reach the building she's been staying in, running past the front desk and straight back to the staircase. They rush up the stairs and she pulls him through her door, slamming it shut behind them. She pushes him against the door and pulls up his hand, his knuckles red and throbbing. "Hey, don't look at me like that. I could've done a lot worse." Her hand reaches up and lightly slides down his jaw, Gale's eyes flickering shut.

"You _could've_ gotten arrested," she says gently, although a smile is playing at her lips. "Laws here aren't the same as they are in other places."

"I'm not quite caring," he shrugs his shoulders as she pulls him into the kitchen, his eyes opening to absorb the place. Madge forces him to sit as she pulls up his hand, getting some ice and placing it in a plastic bag before putting it on his hand. "I don't regret it either." Madge sits across from him, reaching over and trailing across his chin again. "That'll hurt in the morning."

"You didn't have to do that," Madge says quietly.

"Yeah," Gale rolls his eyes, "I did." Madge bites her lip and studies the man in front of her, no longer a teenager covered in coal dust but a man, a _soldier_ that will defend her. "Nice place," Gale tells her, his eyes traveling over the empty bookshelves and unpacked boxes that litter the room.

A laugh bubbles out of her, "It's cozy."

Gale laughs too, "I wasn't being sarcastic, it's a nice place." He wishes he could settle down in a house instead of living at his workplace or on a hovercraft. Madge lifts herself from her chair and walks over to Gale, settling on his lap and pulling his hand into hers. "Still stings," he says weakly as she pulls the icepack off. His free hand wraps around her waist and she rests backwards against his chest.

"Sorry he ruined our plans," she frowns.

"It's alright," Gale replies. "I'm not a big fan of clubs anyways." Madge smiles, twisting around and pulling his chin down to her. He flinches but delivers the kiss. "Jaw," he reminds her weakly.

"I don't care," she murmurs, pulling him down again. The icepack drops onto the table as she fully turns around in his lap, straddling him and running her hands through his hair. "I want you."

"Madge," Gale exhales deeply as she nips against him, sucking lightly on his bottom lip. He suddenly doesn't care about the pain in his jaw. Gale drops his hands, snaking them around her waist and pulling her closer. Her hands trail up under his shirt, nails lightly scraping up his ribcage while he shudders. Like the first night she wraps her legs around him, mumbling something about her bedroom. Gale laughs, tangling his hands in her hair and groaning as her arms wrap around his neck.

Slowly Gale pushes himself from the little wooden chair he was sitting in, breaking the kiss as he looks around for where her bedroom could possibly be. "Left," she laughs, trailing kisses down Gale's neck as he maneuvers through the boxes in the living room. Finally he finds the room, dropping her slowly and letting her land on her toes. Madge's hands go right for his shirt, tugging on the hem until Gale leans down so she can pull it off in one quick motion. She nibbles on her lip as Gale bends down, pressing his lips gently against hers. Madge's jacket slides off her arms and pools at her feet, Gale grabbing Madge's waist and pulling her hips toward him as he makes his way to the bed.

Once she's on the bed too his fingers dip under her shirt, goosebumps fleshing where his fingertips graze her skin. "You sure?" he whispers gently in her ear. Madge nods her head, reaching down and helping him remove her shirt. "Madge if you don't…" he trails off before peppering kisses down her chest.

"Jesus, Gale," she throws her head back and tugs his shoulder closer. His hands reach up to undo her bra but fumble against the fabric. Madge reaches back, helping him slowly as their lips tease each other. "Wanted this… for so long…" Gale lets a laugh bubble out of him as her bra crashes to the floor, his teeth lightly scraping across her collarbone. She shudders, leaning towards him until he reclines backwards on the bed. "Don't you dare try and talk me out of this," she scolds him, her cheeks flushed as his arms wrap around her. He shakes his head with a laugh while she reaches for the button on his jeans. Gale has never been more thankful that Alend showed up in Insula, than at this moment.

* * *

Gale wakes up to an empty bed, the cold sheets unwelcoming and unpleasant. He sits up, rubbing his eyes and scanning for a clock. The one on the wall reads 3:21 AM, the moon shines brightly through the window. His hands search for Madge but she isn't there, and he sits up, continuing to rub his eyes. Gale's heart sinks into his stomach as he scans the room again, looking for some trace of her. Of course he assumes the worst, that she packed up and left in the middle of the night. Sure they're at her house but he's in a state of panic, unsure of what to do.

Gale pushes himself from the bed and pulls on his boxers before slowly making his way through the small apartment. "Madge?" His footsteps are hesitant as he enters the living room. There she sits, a blank expression on her face and a small cup in her hand. "Hey,"

"I was just getting some water," she says quietly. Madge has pulled on Gale's dress shirt as, the white cuffs rolled up to her elbows, as well as her panties. He slides onto the couch next to her and she doesn't hesitate to change her position, leaning against him. "You ok?"

"Fine," he says back, although the images of the nightmare that woke him still dance in his vision. "What about you?"

"Just tired," she reaches forward and places the cup on the table before snuggling closer.

"Then why don't we sleep, hm?" his lips hover over her ear before pressing a light kiss to it. "Madge," his arms wrap tighter around her waist and she sighs. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she says again, but her voice cracks and Gale knows she's lying. With a groan she throws her head back, Gale receiving a face full of her hair. "I just really like you."

"And I really like you," he laughs, nuzzling into her neck. "I don't see the problem." He lifts his hands, slowly massaging her neck and receiving a mew from her.

"What do we do next?" she lifts her shoulders as his hands rub knots out of her back. "I never… I never get attached to people because I always _leave_ and now with you…" she sighs as he starts kissing her neck. "What do we do?"

"I'll do whatever you want," he murmurs.

Her eyebrows furrow, "You're going to have to go back soon, aren't you?" Madge turns to face him, her hand trailing up to his cheek. Her fingers skirt over his jaw, now red but not as sore. "Back to Panem?" Gale frowns, he doesn't want to think about that. His vacation is over in about a week, he doesn't like thinking about it. "What happens then?"

"You could come with me," he says quietly. Her face contorts but before she says anything else he adds, "Only if you want to." There's a pause as his words linger in the air, of course she doesn't want to. Why would she want to go back to a place that in her mind is riddled with war and problems? A place that forced her away due to fear? "I want you to," he tells her.

"I want to," she says back. "I just… I don't know." Gale leans down to kiss her, meeting her lips halfway. Warm, soft, gentle, he could spend forever like this. "Gale," she exhales, pressing herself closer as her arms snake around his neck. "I want to be with you."

"Then come with me," he says against her lips. Gale wraps his arms around her waist as her legs slip over his hips. "You can play the piano in a jazz bar, you can do anything you'd like actually," a smile plays at her lips as Gale pushes her hair out of her face. "Just come with me."

"I don't know if I can go back," Madge says quietly.

"It's not the same place you left," he reassures her. "Come see Katniss and Peeta, come meet my mom… my family." He wants her to meet Posy, to meet Vick and Rory. His mother would love her, she would love Posy. Pink tingles her cheeks as Gale drops his hands to her lower back, sliding up under her shirt and skimming across her spine. "Come with me."

She hesitates, "Can I think about it?" He nods before kissing her again, his hands sliding up her sides and into her hair.

"Let's go back to bed now," he whispers.

Madge nods but doesn't move from her spot. "What woke you up?" He raises an eyebrow as Madge trails her hands up his chest. Her fingers curl and Gale forces a sound of pleasure down his throat. "Hm?"

"Nothing," her hands link behind his neck, Madge bites her lip. "Bad dream." Now she raises _her_ eyebrows, Gale frowning. "It's not a big deal…" but Madge doesn't accept that as an answer. "I have them a lot," he says quietly. "About… before. From the bombings… about you, and I…"

"About me?" Gale jerks his head into a nod and diverts his eyes. "Hey," she lifts his chin. "I'm right here. Gale," he lowers her head to rest against hers and their noses brush. "I'm right here."

"But you weren't always right here," he whispers. "And you might not always be right here."

"Yes I will," she says firmly. The sureness of her voice causes him to lock eyes with her. "I'll always be right here." And despite her lack of words, that was Madge's promise that she wasn't going to leave him. Not tomorrow, and not next week. Hopefully not ever. Gale cradles Madge in his arms and then carries her back to bed, the two tangling in each other before falling asleep once more. Gale didn't have any nightmares the rest of the night.

* * *

_A/N: Few more chapters and we're done! Maybe one or two. I'm thinking two._


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15: Come with me**

* * *

Gale wakes in a sweat, his fingers clawing the mattress as his eyes dilate. The air in the room is cold but all he feels is hot, flames dancing around him. Madge nestles up to him, her eyes flickering open as Gale's breathing hitches. Her hands press up his chest, trail around his neck and across his chin until he looks down at her.

"Gale," she whispers. "Hey, you're okay." Madge blinks until she can see clearly, the sleep dissolving from her eyes. Gale studies her face, the curve of her nose, the pink to her cheeks. "I'm right here," her voice is gentle. "Gale, I'm right here." He nods his head and pulls her closer, his lips crashing against her forehead. "It was just a dream." Still he nods, her hands slide across his chest gently as his wrap around her waist. "I'm right here."

"I know," Gale says weakly. Nightmares are frequent with him. Not as much now that he's found her, now that she sleeps nestled against him, but they still come sometimes. He can't stop the screams that pound in his head, the way her house collapses as he stands idle. Her body in the street, her skin charred and broken. He can't stop the visions that plague him.

"Just a dream," she repeats. He leans down and she leans up, her lips gently move against his. Gale turns, his hand sliding up her spine gently. "I'm not going anywhere, I'm right here." She rests against his chest knowing that the only way to calm him after a nightmare is to be there for him. "I'm right here." From where she lays she presses kisses to his chest repeatedly, Gale suppressing sounds of pleasure and replacing them with sighs. Just as the two are about to fall back asleep a ringing causes them both to sit up in a panic. "What's that?" she asks, her voice already muddled with sleep again.

"Video call," Gale groans, collapsing backwards on the bed. "I'll just let it go." Madge curls up to him with a smile, kissing along his jaw. "Mmm," Gale grins as Madge pulls herself on top of him, kissing his nose, under his eyes.

"God, that's annoying," she mutters, the beeping continuing to carry on. "Maybe Am'll get it," she suggests, her lips finding his. Gale snorts, Am could sleep through the end of the world.

"I'll get it," he tells her, his hands sliding through her hair gently. "I'll be back." Madge scrunches her nose, falling off to the side and letting her fingertips slide across his chest.

Gale finally forces himself out of bed and makes his way to the pilot's room. They're back on the hovercraft for now considering they wanted to be with Am and Nena while Madge considers her options. Gale slips past Madge who curls into a ball at his absence. He can't help but smile as her fingers reach out for where he laid. Gale makes his way to the room where the call is coming and closes the door tightly, accepting the incoming video lazily. His mother's face appears on the other end and he sits up straight, the relaxed demeanor he had moments ago now vanishing.

"What's wrong?" he asks before she can even get a word in. Gale can read his mother like a book, the way her eyebrows meet, how her frown tilts to the side. "What happened?"

"Vick's ill," she says quietly. Her eyes dart around the room behind her as if the other kids are sleeping and she's trying to keep her voice down. "Gale, Vick's _very_ ill, I don't know what to do."

Gale frowns, leaning forward in his seat. "How sick? What happened?"

Hazelle sighs, pulling her fingers through her graying hair. "It all happened so quickly. He was fine and then he went to the neighbors…" she shakes her head and meets eyes with her son. "District 12 hasn't been getting their medical shipments lately; I might fly him out to Mrs. Everdeen. I don't know what to do; he's got an uncontrollable fever."

"Has it been going around? Are there other people there that are sick too?" Gale's too busy to worry about why District 12 isn't getting their medical shipments; he just cares about his family.

"Yes," she exhales deeply. "But it's not this bad. I think Vick has a rare strand of it, or maybe his body is just reacting differently. He's always been weaker when it comes to sicknesses like this. I'm keeping him away from Rory and Posy just in case, but you know them. They're anxious and he's their brother." Gale nods, raking his fingers through his hair. "I know you're busy but I need you to come home, Gale. I need _help_."

"I'll call 2, I'll get them to send some stuff…" his voice gives out as he knows it isn't enough. He's got to get home; he's got to be with his family. "What else is wrong with him?"

"Fever," Hazelle holds up her fingers and starts counting. "Can't keep anything down, shivers, sweats," she drops the fingers she's counting on and rubs at her face. "He's having hallucinations, he has this strange rash…" her chin quivers and Hazelle starts to tear up.

"I'll be there," Gale tells her. "Ma, I'm gonna come home, alright?"

Suddenly his mother changes her mind, "No, no you have that girl to find, and I can just…" Hazelle forces back sobs and wipes at her eyes.

"Ma," a smile cracks on Gale's face, "I found her. She's here on the ship, she's sleeping."

"She is?" Gale nods. "Oh, Gale that's great!" Still, Hazelle wipes at her eyes. "You don't have to come home, I'll figure something out, I'll…"

"Jesus, Ma," Gale frowns. "I'm coming home, alright? We'll get Vick to a hospital and figure out what's wrong; everything'll be fine, okay?" She nods and presses her hands to her eyes. "I'll see you soon."

"Dear, there's no rush," Hazelle's voice is tired. "Take your time."

"I'm leaving in the morning," he tells her. "Make sure my room will be ready, tell them all I love them, alright? I'll see you soon."

"Gale,"

"I love you, Ma."

The woman smiles sadly, "I love you, too." The call goes blank and Gale sits in the pilot's chair for a few moments. His fingers rake through his hair. What's he supposed to do now? What if Madge doesn't want to come with him? He can't just leave her, but his family comes first and if that's how it has to be…

Gale rushes from the cockpit and back into his own room. Madge glances at the door as he enters and a smile forms on her lips. "Panem in trouble?" she teases. Gale sits on the edge of his bed and drops his head into his hands. "Aw, Gale," Madge sits up and moves behind him. "I was joking. What's wrong?" Her hands find his shoulders and start rubbing knots out. "Gale,"

"My brother's sick," he says quietly. "Vick, he's got some sort of fever." Madge continues to massage him but her eyebrows furrow, unaware of how big of a deal this is. "District 12, they haven't been getting their medical shipments. I've gotta go back, I've gotta help them." Madge's hands freeze as Gale lifts his head out of his hands. "I've got to leave in the morning."

"The morning?" Madge asks weakly. Gale turns to her and nods his head a bit, his hand trailing across her cheek. "You can't… you can't wait a few days or…"

"He's my brother," Gale tells her. "They don't know how serious it is, I haven't seen them in years. If something were to happen to him and I haven't been around…" Gale drops his head again. "If you don't want to come I'm not going to force you," he keeps his voice soft to prevent it from cracking. "God knows I want you to, I'd do anything to get you to come with me, but I can't make you." Madge chews on her lip as she studies the man in front of her, his face flooded with desperation, his voice on the edge of hysteria. "He's my little brother, I've got to be with him."

Madge inhales deeply, "Do you want me to come?"

"_Yes_," Gale stresses, lifting his head again. "God, yes."

She nods once and swallows tightly. "Then I'm coming."

"You…" he trails off and she nods again, her hands reaching up and linking behind his neck. "You'll… back to Panem?" Still she nods, a light smile forming on her lips. "With me?" Gale dips down, his lips pressing against hers quickly. "Really?"

"Yes," she laughs, breathing him in. "With you, back to Panem." Madge knows that family comes first, after losing her own she can't hold Gale back from seeing his. Besides, if she can't take it then she can always leave. They talked about it, Madge leaving if she couldn't deal with being back in Panem. "To meet your family and get a job in District 2…" she trails off as Gale leans down to kiss her again, his arms wrapping around her and pulling her onto his lap.

"I love you," he murmurs, her stomach knotting at his words. "God, Madge, I love you." She smiles against his lips, her hands tangling in his hair. "Are you sure? You really want to come… you really…"

"As long as I'm with you," she says back. Gale kisses her nose and pulls her back into bed. Madge wraps herself around him as they lay. "Tell me about it," she pleads, her fingers tracing patterns across his forehead. "Panem, about how it's changed." And so Gale spends the rest of the night whispering to her about how the government is different, how everyone works together to live in peace, how living a free life is truly possible now. Hours later they fall asleep smothered in each other, eager to leave in the morning.

Or so, that's what Gale thought.

He awakes to an empty bed, his fingers scanning the mattress for Madge. He tells himself that she just got up to make coffee, to get a glass of water, but as the sun leaks through his window and penetrates his slumber he realizes this isn't true. Gale forces himself out of bed and keeps a calm face. He exits his room and finds Amicus wrapped around Nena at the counter, planting kisses to her neck as she pours coffee.

"Morning," he says quietly. The two turn, smiles on their faces and their eyebrows high. "We've got to go today."

Nena's the first one to change her expression, nearly dropping her mug on the floor. "What happened?"

"Vick's ill," he says, mostly to Amicus considering Nena doesn't know who Vick is. "Gotta get to District 12." Amicus drops his arms from around Nena, motioning for her to go back to breakfast. It takes a minute but eventually the brunette does so, even if it is with worried glances. "Today, we've got to start back today."

"Alright, Gale," Am says, his hand resting on his friend's shoulder. "Is that it? You look…" Amicus looks behind Gale at the empty room. "Where's Madge?" Gale lifts his shoulders into a shrug and pushes his friend off, rubbing at his face. "What do you mean you don't know?"

"I mean last night she said she'd come with me and this morning I woke up and she was _gone_," Gale snaps. Nena pauses in her motions by the counter but doesn't turn to the two friends. "Just get the ship ready, would you?"

"Gale," Amicus frowns, following after his friend. "You don't know that she…" Gale turns, raising his eyebrows. His eyes are empty, his face tired. "We'll leave at noon," Am says quietly.

Gale spends the rest of the day locked in his room, cleaning it up a bit just so he has something to do. Nena tries to coax him out with the promise of coffee and bacon but he ignores her calls. "I'm sorry," Nena finally says through the door. Her voice gives out and Gale hears her rest against the obstacle between them. "I should've warned you that she'd do something like that. I had that feeling…" Nena's words don't help much.

Finally, a few minutes before noon, Gale strides out of his room. His eyes are pained, everything looks too bright. All he wants to do is sleep, crawl into a ball and sit in the dark. He loves her and she knows that and she still left, left without a word of goodbye. He slams his head against the wall and groans, nothing makes sense to him anymore. How could something so blissfully perfect turn into something so heartbreaking in such a short time? Just last night she told him she'd go with him.

"Ready to go?" Amicus asks, striding out of the cockpit. Gale nods and Amicus chews on his lip. "We can go check on her, you know, make sure that she…"

"She obviously made her choice," Gale drones back. "Let's just leave, alright?" Empty, all he feels is empty.

"Gale," Nena rests her hand on his arm. "Maybe it just wasn't mean to be,"

"Just drop it," he nearly bites at her. "I'm tired. Let's just go, I want to see my family." Gale makes his way to take the seat of co-pilot but a banging on the door causes him to pause. Nena raises an eyebrow and hurries over, pulling up the metal door slowly.

First a bag is pushed up, then another. "Madge?" Nena asks, and then the blonde herself pops up. "What're… what're you doing?"

"Well I wasn't going to leave without some of my stuff," she says, pulling herself onto the platform. Gale stands wide eyed, watching as the girl he loves brushes herself off. "Were you guys going to leave without me?"

Gale strides forward, wrapping her in his arms. "I thought you…" he buries himself into her neck. "You didn't… you just left, I…"

Madge laughs as he picks her up, holding her close as they spin once. "I told you I'd talk to you if I ever decided to leave," she says quietly once he lets her go. Her hand cups his cheek and he leans down, forcing his lips against hers. "I told you I'm not going anywhere."

"Yeah well I thought you were," he murmurs against her lips.

"And you were going to leave without checking for me?" she raises an eyebrow, her hands tangling in his hair. Her words have no venom to them, she isn't upset that they almost left her. Of course they would have assumed Madge was leaving, it's what she does, so she has no reason to be angry. "I'm coming with you."

* * *

_A/N: Next chapter will most likely wrap it all up! Thanks for sticking with me._


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16: From Here On Out**

* * *

It's a bit hard to focus on flying a hovercraft with Madge pressing tantalizing kisses to Gale's neck. Not that he minds much, his heart racing in his chest and his skin melting as she tightens her grip around him. Amicus, however. Amicus minds. Not in the annoyed type of way, but in the way that they're quite a few miles in the sky and he would like Gale's _full_ attention on the situation at hand. There'll be plenty of time for Madge later.

"Listen I know you two are so happy to be in each other's presence," he says lamely after several coughs trying to get their attention, all of which failed by the way. "But we're _kind_ of trying to fly a hovercraft."

"Oh, shove off," Gale mutters, causing Madge to laugh. Amicus smirks as Madge waves her goodbyes, exiting the cockpit to talk to Nena. The two girls sit on the couch and gossip about God knows what considering there's literally nothing to gossip about, and the door between the two groups pulls shut. Gale keeps a smile plastered on his face and Amicus watches him from the corner of his eye. "Would you stop looking at me?" he laughs, no tinge of annoyance in his voice.

Am laughs too, "It's just nice to see you smile." There's a pause as he flips a few switch, but then he adds, "We haven't talked much since you found her."

"_We_ found her," he corrects. Gale needs to make it known that there is no way in hell he'd be here if he hadn't brought Am along. Or Nena, for that instance. "I owe you so much."

"Sure," Am snorts. "Gale, you don't owe me anything. I'm just happy you're happy, alright? I kind of wish we talked more, too, but that can be dealt with." Gale nods and Amicus purses his lips. "So… is it all you dreamed it to be?"

"Am," oh yes, it's time for the talk.

"Rainbows in the meadow?"

"Amicus," Gale tightens his grip on the controls as his ears go pink. Gale's never one for talking about relationship, Amicus can never get enough.

"Unicorns flying through the sky?"

"I swear," Gale holds back a laugh. "Why am I friends with you?"

"Because you love me," the other replies quickly. "But is it? All you wanted it to be?"

Gale pauses a moment, pursing his lips and scrunching his nose. "If possible, it's better." And that is all Amicus needed to hear. "What about you and Nena, eh?" Gale watches as Am's face runs red. "Can't hide anything from me, dear friend."

"Wasn't trying to," he says through a forced voice. Amicus has had all of three girlfriends. In high school. With life in District 2 nothing is certain, he never wanted to attach himself to anyone. "Nena's…" a lopsided grin stretches across his face. "She's just everything." Gale nods, saying nothing about how Nena is coming with them back to Panem. "I told her about the children's hospital down on Main Street," Am adds as if he's reading Gale's thoughts. "She loves kids, you know. Really does. They're short on staff and she got all excited about it."

"And you're okay with that?"

"Hell yeah I'm okay with that," Am laughs. "Not only are children going to be happy, but _I'm_ going to be happy. I get to wake up every morning next to…" he trails off, his face tickled pink again. "You know, I thought you were stupid at first." Gale raises an eyebrow as his friend continues, "Oh yeah. Off your rocker. Chasing around some girl that might not even remember you. But I feel like… I feel like if roles had been switched and I was looking for Nena…"

"I got it," Gale laughs.

Am pulls his hands through his hair, "I guess… I guess I should be the one thanking you. It's like everything makes sense now."

* * *

The rush to the Hawthorne residence is one Gale makes on his own. He doesn't wait for the others, leaving Madge with Nena and Amicus, and pounds through the cold streets of the new District 12. The roads are easy to navigate, and although Gale's only been back to 12 once or twice he knows exactly where his family is located. The new house that they've built has rooms for everyone, it's clean and strong and no longer in a place that would ever be deemed as _Seam_.

He bursts through the door without even knocking, finding his mother pacing in the living room. "Gale," she croaks upon seeing him, rushing forward and pulling her son into her arms. Her hug squeezes the life out of him. "Oh, it's been so long since I've _seen_ you," she weeps into his chest, the grip getting stronger.

"Gale?"

"Gale's home!" Posy and Rory rush down the stairs, the older reaching Gale first because his legs are longer. "Hey!"

"Hey, Rory," Gale sighs, holding his not-so-little brother in his arms. Much like Gale he stands tall; they're nearly the same height now. "It's great to see you," Rory just nods, absorbing his brother. Posy nearly claws Rory off of him, wrapping herself around the midsection of Gale. "Hey, Pose. Have you grown since last time I've seen you?" Posy giggles, looking up wide eyed at him. He runs his hands through her dark messy hair and she shoves him away, crossing her arms.

"You're still a giant," she teases.

"You're still a runt," he says back with a laugh. Gale turns to his mom. "Upstairs?" she nods once, and then Gale pounds his way up the steps. Timidly he pushes open the only closed door, the one that must belong to Vick. "Vick?" his voice is gentle incase the younger is asleep. "You awake?"

"Gale?"

"Hey, bud," Gale keeps his voice soft and steps into the room. He notes the many boxes of tissues, the extra amount of blankets and sick-mugs. "How're you feeling?"

"Is that really you?"

"Yeah," he kneels next to Vick and grabs his hand. "I flew all the way from Insula to see you." Vick shivers but a smile creeps onto his face. "You feeling okay?"

"Much better now," he tells him but through an obvious amount of force. "I can't believe you're really here. It's been so long." Guilt knots in Gale's stomach; he honestly hasn't seen much of his family since the war. It isn't like he wanted to, but there was so much that made him not want to return. Despite his conversations with Katniss he still felt responsible for Prim's death, he was sure Rory deemed Gale responsible too. He didn't want to see the place he grew up riddled with rubble; he didn't want to see anything at all.

"I know," Gale replies. "I'm sorry, I should've come more."

"Now don't act like I'm dying," Vick laughs and then coughs. "I'm just sick. Mom's overreacting. Always does."

"I know that," Gale frowns, but he isn't entirely sure. "You just got to get better now, alright? Then we can play soccer or something, just like we used to." Vick grins, the idea of playing a sport with his older brother again seems almost impossible. "How about you get some sleep, yeah?"

"Sure. Hey, Gale? Did you ever find that girl?"

"Course I did, you nutter," Gale messes up his brothers hair with a laugh. "I'm a Hawthorne, we always get what we want."

"Yeah," Vick laughs, and then pauses. "Can I meet her?" Now it's Gale's turn to pause, drawing his eyebrows together confusedly. "Mom says you're in love, are you?" Gale jerks his head into a nod and Vick laughs. "That's weird. But I want to meet her so I can see what love looks like to you."

"You idiot," Gale laughs. "Love looks like you and Posy and Rory and Mom all being here for me when I come home. Treating me like family even though I'm never here anymore."

Vick smiles, a weak but happy smile, "I guess. I still want to meet her."

* * *

Amicus and Nena decide to stay aboard the hovercraft considering they don't think they'll be staying long. They always come over for dinner as Vick works his way to recovery, slowly, but eventually. Madge was the one that figured it out, the thing that made it so much worse than it should have been. "He's allergic to the medicine," she told Hazelle. "Switch his medicine and he should heal up quickly."

"How'd you know that?" Gale asked her that night. Despite Hazelle's original protests Madge and Gale now share a guest room. They lay tangled in each other, his arms pulled around her waist as she rests against his chest. "About the medicine?"

"You pick up a few things when traveling the world," she told him, her hands trailing down the side of his cheek.

Currently, however Vick's well enough to get out of bed, so they all sit downstairs around the fire. Madge rests in Gale's arms while the whole family pretends like they're not staring. Vick tries to decipher what love means while Rory just gazes at the angel in front of him. Hazelle can't wipe the smile from her face, it's always a strange thing watching a child grow up and fall in love. "You're really pretty," Posy says. Madge smiles, her cheeks turning pink. "I wish I had blonde hair like you."

"Aw, don't say that," Madge says back. "Your hair is beautiful."

Posy tugs on her locks, "You really think so?"

Madge nods, "Oh, definitely. I'd always wished I had darker hair," she admits, her eyes trailing up to Gale. What she doesn't admit, however, is because she thought Gale only liked girls with darker hair. It's funny too, considering Gale's always loved Madge's hair, the way it catches every bounce of sunlight. Her hands stay locked with his as he presses noticeable kisses to her shoulders. "This is a lovely house you have, Hazelle," she says, trying to get Gale to stop kissing her while they're around his family. She's sort of nervous in that aspect.

"Oh, thank you," the mother gushes. "Because Gale was a war hero or something of that sort they basically gave us whatever we needed. Rooms for all the kids, a nice big kitchen so I could cook." Hazelle loves to cook, spending day after day baking sheets of cookies or pies or anything of the sort. "A washing machine so I don't have to do it myself. It's all been very nice." Madge is happy at the changes Panem is making, the way everyone is treated as equal. Some get benefits if they don't have the money to back them, but everyone is treated fairly now. "I hear you travel?"

"Not anymore," Gale murmurs against Madge's skin so only she can hear. "Hopefully. Not without me."

"Yes," Madge forces out despite Gale's whispers, her cheeks flooding red. "Or well, I used to."

"Better," Gale keeps his voice gentle, his lips quick against her neck. Hazelle watches the interaction and although she can't make out what they're saying she smiles all the same. Her little boy, her son, all grown up and in love.

"I quite liked Erat and Luto but Insula was my favorite," her hand tightens around Gale's. "Never quite know what you'll find there." Gale snorts, and Rory raises his eyebrows. "Gale saved my life, you know."

"Did he?" Posy's eyes light up. Posy's in that 'romance is in the air' stage, having crushes on all her classmates and reading love stories in her fairytale books. "How?"

"I fell off a cliff," she admits weakly. Rory can't stop himself from laughing, and then neither can Vick. "Oh, come on!" Madge suddenly laughs alongside them. "I was _rock _climbing! The rope snapped!"

Rory pauses at her words, "You rock climb?"

"Of course I do," Madge crosses her arms. "I love rock climbing." She's about to carry on her story about how Gale saved her but instead decides to list the things she's done on her adventures. "Not only that but I went bungee jumping once."

"No way!" Vick nearly shouts.

"Way. Parasailing, hot air ballooning," she counts off on her fingers. "I've climbed a few mountains…" Rory's mouth hangs open as he studies the blonde.

"Gale," Rory says. "Marry her. Marry her or I will."

* * *

Madge lies in Gale's arms that night, her hands cupping his face as she presses kisses to his lips. "I like your family," she whispers. Gale grins, pulling her closer and resting his hands on her lower back. "Especially Rory, he's a keeper."

"Mmm? And not me?"

"I don't know," she teases, "he seemed pretty fascinated by my stories." He raises an eyebrow as she steals another kiss before giggling. Gale loves her stories, she knows that. He even told her she should write a book, make millions. "Maybe I'm dating the wrong Hawthorne."

"Maybe not," Gale laughs, tightening his grip around her. "He's much too young for you, I'd say."

"Still pretty handsome," her hands tangle in Gale's hair as he kisses her nose, "just as bright."

"Don't push it," Gale murmurs, bringing her face closer to his. "He'll never love you like I do," he whispers.

"Yeah, I suppose that's true. I couldn't love him either, not like with you." Again Gale raises an eyebrow. "Oh yes, Gale Hawthorne, I'm in love with you." Unable to say anything back Gale kisses her, his hands knotting in her hair as he sucks against her lips. "I don't deserve you," she breathes.

"Oh, to hell with that," Gale laughs. "Who gives a damn what anyone deserves? If the rebellion had never happened I wouldn't deserve you either," her hands frame his face and tease at his hairline. "And yes, you do deserve me. You probably deserve better than me, but…"

"No," she cuts him off with another kiss. "Don't even start." The two drift off tangled in each other, not wanting to be anywhere else.

* * *

When Katniss opens the door and sees Madge on the other side her eyes widen like she's seeing a ghost. Madge offers a small wave and then she's pulled into Katniss's arms tightly. Gale stands back and watches as Katniss tries to keep tears out of her eyes but fails miserably. Peeta lumbers down the stairs moments later and then he, too, joins the tearful reunion.

"I thought you were dead!" Katniss accuses, but it's all in good nature.

"You couldn't have sent a post card or something?" Peeta teases, his arms tight around his childhood friend.

"And you!" Katniss jabs a finger in Gale's chest. "I haven't seen you in _years_!"

"Sorry Catnip," Gale says back with a smile, his best friend shaking with emotions in his arms. "But I missed you too."

All four sit down for coffee, Madge once again finding her way to Gale's arms. That's the only place she feels safe anymore, the only place she feels whole. Katniss watches with wide eyes as she nuzzles up to his chest and Gale leans down to kiss her.

"I think I speak for both of us," Peeta says, "when I say that you two together is by far the strangest thing I've ever seen."

"I think the strangest thing I've ever seen is a two headed snake," Madge offers lightly. "What's so strange about two people together, hm?"

"It's not that you're together," Katniss says weakly, she's still deemed a bit _innocent_ by her peers.

"Yeah, it's that it's _you_ two," Peeta grins.

"Yeah, very strange," Gale murmurs. Madge laughs, craning her neck to kiss him. His nerves melt and he grins, kissing her again. Katniss coughs awkwardly before returning to her coffee and Gale rolls his eyes. "How old are we, Catnip?"

"I don't know, Gale," she says back with a scrunched nose, "considering you still feel the need to call me _Catnip_."

* * *

The Hawthorne's stand outside their house waving goodbye to Madge and Gale as they start back towards their hovercraft. The two wanted to stay a bit longer but District 2 called and Gale had to return to work. His absence had been _very_ noticeable, and people were getting antsy that their leader hadn't been home in so long.

"Wait," Madge stops Gale and then digs in her bag. "I almost forgot, I'll be right back." Gale raises an eyebrow as Madge rushes down the street toward his family. "Hey Posy," Madge leans down and hands her a book. "I wanted to give you this before I go, alright?"

"What is it?" Posy asks wide eyed, cradling the huge leather bound book in her hands.

"Gale showed me your room," she tells her. "All the maps and stuff. You want to travel one day too, right?" Posy nods her head as Madge smiles. "Well I took a lot of pictures as I traveled. Pictures from all over. I wanted to let you borrow the book, maybe keep a few pictures if you like them, okay?"

"Really?"

"Yeah," Madge cups her face. "You can travel one day too, but for now this is just a taste of all the adventure out there for you." Posy nearly drops the book before throwing her arms around the blonde.

"Thank you!" she cheers. "Thank you so much!"

"No problem," Madge laughs. "Just remember that. Okay? There's always going to be adventure out there."

"Madge we gotta go," Gale calls over.

"Coming!" she calls back. "Bye Posy. Bye guys!" The Hawthorne clan waves their goodbyes again and waits until Madge is out of listening distance.

Rory turns to his mother, "I'm serious. If Gale doesn't marry her then I will."

"Don't worry," Hazelle smiles, "I don't think we'll have any problems there."

* * *

Back in District 2 Madge and Gale settle into a comfortable lifestyle. Madge picks up a job at the same hospital Nena does and so the two girls always see each other. On the weekends Madge plays the piano at a jazz bar just like Gale had suggested, bringing in some extra cash. Every night Gale comes home to Madge and they lose themselves in each other, no one around them can doubt their love. Nena and Amicus come over every Friday night and they either go out or stay in, playing board games and drinking or just doing whatever they like.

Nena and Amicus get engaged a few months later, Madge is still yet to wear a ring.

Two years later Gale convinces Madge to go on vacation with him. Her nerves are shot the entire trip, muttering about how she should be at work and Gale should be training new recruits, but she goes all the same. Gale never lets go of her hand. How she doesn't figure out what city they land in is beyond him, but it's all the better for him. She must be too preoccupied to with something to notice.

"Where are we going?" Madge grumbles as they stroll hand in hand down a path.

"I just want to show you something," he says back with a laugh. "Will you _relax_? We're on vacation, hun."

"I know," she frowns, nibbling on her lip. "I just feel like I'm needed somewhere."

"Yeah," he leans down to kiss her quickly. "Right here. With me." She rolls her eyes but a playful smile stays bright on her face. "Alright," they reach the end of the trail. "We're here."

"And where exactly is here?" she crosses her arms, her eyes darting up to the sky as if she's trying to figure it out.

"The place that changed everything," Gale says while dropping down to his knee. "Madge Undersee,"

"Oh my God,"

"Two years ago to this day you were rock climbing and your rope snapped."

"Gale," her cheeks flush and her heart picks up in her chest. "What are you…"

He holds her hand tightly in his. "And I climbed to the bottom ledge where you fell and I saw you and my heart stopped." He pauses for a moment, knowing he practiced the speech a million times but was still fumbling with words. It never seemed right to him. "From that day on I knew there was no going back, I wouldn't be able to go on without you." Her eyes prick with tears but a smile stays weakly on her face. "I love you. God knows I'm not good at this stuff but I love you more than I'll ever love anyone else, more than I've loved anyone else." She starts nodding her head before she can stop, before he's even asked her anything. "Will you marry me?"

"Yes," she croaks, dropping to her knees. "Yes, _yes_," her chin quivers as he fumbles in his pocket and pulls out the ring, sliding it onto her finger gently. "Oh, Gale…" she doesn't even study the ring before pulling his face into her hands, pressing desperate kisses to his mouth. "I love you," she forces out. "I love you." Again, Gale is at a loss for words. All he knows is the feel of her skin, the taste of her lips. And from this point on, he'll never need to know anything else.

* * *

_A/N: We've reached the end, I'd say. I suppose this chapter was basically a bunch of oneshots that wrapped it up. Did I do it justice? I hope so. Thank you to all who have read and reviewed, who have stuck with me through this story I never actually intended to write! I hope you enjoyed the story, and the end, although it's sad to see it over. Thanks again. _


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